Kings hold off Panthers for third consecutive win

Adrian Kempe had a short-handed goal and an assist, Pheonix Copley made 41 saves and the Los Angeles Kings held on to beat the Florida Panthers 4-3 on Friday night for their third straight win.

Anze Kopitar, Viktor Arvidsson and Matt Roy also scored for the Kings, who led 3-0 midway through the second period.

Ryan Lomberg and Brandon Montour scored in the second to get the Panthers within 3-2, but Roy's late empty-netter sealed Florida's third straight loss.

Carter Verhaeghe added an empty-netter for the Panthers and Alex Lyon had 27 saves while making his fourth consecutive start in place of the injured Sergei Bobrovsky.

Los Angeles scored twice within a span of four-plus minutes toward the end of the first period, going up 2-0 when Kempe connected on an odd-man rush while killing a Florida power play.

The Kings got their second short-handed goal of the game from Arvidsson to make it 3-0 at 9:58 of the second period.

Florida made a charge after that with Lomberg scoring off a backhanded shot from the slot with 6:37 left in thesecond. Montour followed about three minutes later with a hard slap shot from the left circle.

RANGERS

4, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 1 >> Vincent Trocheck had a goal and an assist, Jaroslav Halak stopped 33 shots and New York beat struggling Vegas.

Chris Kreider, Filip Chytil and Jimmy Vesey also scored for the host Rangers, who are 8-2-3 in their last 13 games heading into their bye week and All-Star break. Braden Schneider had two assists and Halak won his fifth straight start.

Phil Kessel had a goal for Vegas and Adin Hill finished with 36 saves. The Golden Knights lost for the seventh time in nine games (2-6-1). ISLANDERS 2, RED WINGS 0 >> Ilya Sorokin made 23 saves and Brock Nelson had a goal and an assist, leading New York to victory over visiting Detroit. Anders Lee also scored and Kyle Palmieri had two assists, helping New York stop a six-game slide. SENATORS 6, MAPLE LEAFS 2 >> Brady Tkachuk scored twice, Anton Forsberg made 31 saves and Ottawa won at Toronto.

MAPLE LEAFS' MATTHEWS

OUT AT LEAST 3 WEEKS >> Toronto center Auston Matthews will miss at least three weeks with a sprained knee.

The team announced the reigning MVP's anticipated absence Friday, two days after Matthews was injured in Toronto's victory against the Rangers.