NEW YORK _ That the Islanders need more scoring from their lineup, and more balance from their four lines, has been well established.
Kieffer Bellows seems to be presenting a quick solution after being recalled from Bridgeport.
He scored his first two goals in his second NHL game, including the winner, as the Islanders twice rallied from two-goal deficits to conclude a three-game Brooklyn homestand with a 5-3 win over the Western Conference-worst Kings on Thursday night at Barclays Center.
Overall, the Islanders got three goals from their maligned third line that now includes Bellows along with center Derick Brassard and left wing Michael Dal Colle. Fourth-liner Matt Martin scored in the third.
The Islanders (31-15-6), on a 3-0-2 spurt, leapfrogged the Blue Jackets for third place in the Metropolitan Division by one point, with two games in hand on Columbus.
The Islanders play six of their next seven on the road, starting Saturday at Tampa Bay.
Bellows, set up by Brassard, made it 4-3 at 12:10 of the third period. Anders Lee clinched it by racing down ice to stave off an icing, then scored an empty-netter with 12.5 seconds left.
Thomas Greiss made 22 saves and Jonathan Quick stopped 28 shots for the Kings.
"You understand where they are in the standings and where we are and the difference," Jordan Eberle said. "But the NHL is such a good league. These teams, especially late in the year, have a tendency to frustrate a lot of teams.
The Kings nearly did, but the Islanders continued a second-period resurgence by tying the game at 3 just 23 seconds into the third period as Martin got to the crease to knock in the rebound of defenseman Devon Toews' shot. Defenseman Ryan Pulock, with the secondary assist, notched his 100th NHL point.
The Kings are just 2-10-1 in 2020 and without a regulation win since Jan. 9. They also entered the game with the second fewest goals in the NHL and preparing to be extreme sellers by the Feb. 24 trade deadline. On Wednesday, they sent backup goalie Jack Campbell and Kyle Clifford, a big part of the Kings' Stanley Cup winners in 2012 and 2014, to the Maple Leafs.
The Kings went ahead 3-1 at 7:09 of the second period as Trevor Lewis tipped Michael Amadio's feed past Greiss after Kings defenseman Ben Hutton picked off rookie defenseman Noah Dobson's attempted clear along the left boards.
Bellows' first goal, off Anthony Beauvillier's feed, came at 10:22 of the second period as he celebrated by getting a huge bear hug from defenseman Johnny Boychuk.
Dal Colle, with his second goal in three games and fourth of the season, had tipped Boychuk's shot from the right point past Quick to bring the Islanders within 2-1 at 1:40 of the second period after an uninspired first period.
The Kings took a 1-0 lead at 10:20 of the first as Hutton found a wide-open lane to skate through the slot and convert Adrian Kempe's feed from the left boards.
That became 2-0 at 17:20 as Brock Nelson was unable to control the puck near the Islanders' blue line and Alex Iafallo swooped in to gain control and score from the left circle on the Kings' fifth shot.
Bellows, who got his first NHL point with an assist in his debut on Tuesday, created a good chance for himself in the first period. He dragged the puck around defenseman Kurtis MacDermid in the left circle to create space but shot wide of the crease at 2:35.
