Rob Blake's goal at the 7:22 mark of the third period broke a 1-1 tie and helped lead the Los Angeles Kings to a 3-1 victory over the slumping New York Islanders at the Nassau Coliseum Thursday night. Matt Moulson and Alexander Frolov also scored for Los Angeles while Bryan Berard managed the only goal for New York. Jason Labarbera made 28 saves to earn the win for the Kings.

Both teams did not play well, and the game lacked flow and was fairly uneventful. There were few pretty passes, scoring chances, or big hits. And after the game, Islanders' coach, Ted Nolan was quick to criticize his team's play.

"The way we played was just unacceptable," Nolan said. "It's lethargic, there's no energy, there's no zip, there's nothing to it. You can't expect to win hockey games like that or entertain our fans...The second period was like watching paint dry: there was nothing to it. They didn't have anything and we didn't have anything. We have to be a little hungry and a little more determined and we have to make better decisions."

The loss dropped the Islanders out of playoff position and into ninth place in the Eastern Conference. They are also now fifth in the Atlantic Division, behind the Rangers who won last night. It also means the Isles finished the month of January with an 0-5-1 record at the Nassau Coliseum.

The team has been weakened by a bad case of the flu which caused five players to miss practice Wednesday and made Andy Sutton and Ruslan Fedotenko sit out for a second straight game. Mike Sillinger and Bryan Berard played despite their illnesses. Goalie Rick DiPietro sat on the bench but was unable to start and Nolan said he probably would have been better off at home.

Nolan refused to use the flu as an excuse for his team's poor performance. "Those kinds of excuses are a dime a dozen," Nolan said. "We can come up with a lot of them. The fact remains that we didn't compete. The guys who are healthy have to step it up somehow. We didn't find a way."

The Kings scored first on Moulson's goal off the rebound of a Bryan Willsie shot. Michael Handzus battled for the rebound but couldn't get a shot off but the puck slid right to Moulson who was able to tap it in at the 10:35 mark of the first period.

Bryan Berard made a good play to tie the game less than four minutes later, cutting off a long diagonal clearing pass by Lubomir Visnovsky just as he was leaving the penalty box and then planting a wrist shot over the stacked pads of Labarbera on the short side.

"I kind of read the defenseman's eyes," Berard explained. "They felt they were still on the power play. I was able to come out of the box and pick off the pass and bury it."

The winning goal came on a Kings power play after the Isles were called for too many men on the ice. The Islanders had killed the first four Los Angeles power plays, while New York was given only one chance with the man advantage. The final goal by Frolov came with an empty net with just 41 seconds left.

Wade Dubielewicz got the start and played well, making 24 saves for the Islanders, but Dubie was thinking about the one that got away. "Our penalty kill was obviously pretty good tonight," Dubielewicz said. "Then you give up that last one which kind of hurts. It's tough. The guy [Blake] got a tip and it went through my legs. It squeaked through."

The Islanders play next on Saturday in Montreal. The team and their coach are looking for answers to their latest slump.

"It's very frustrating," said veteran center, Mike Sillinger. "We can't start pointing fingers. We've got to stick together and deal with this adversity and start playing well at home. We're going to have to pick up our play."