ELMONT, N.Y. — Bo Horvat first taketh away but ultimately, gave the surging New York Islanders their fourth consecutive victory.
After two turnovers directly led to a pair of St. Louis Blues goals to put his side down by a pair, Horvat scored the game-winning goal 55 seconds into the third period to headline a four-goal unanswered run to lift the Islanders to a 4-2 victory on Tuesday night at UBS Arena.
“It was a little bit of everything,” Horvat said. “It was frustrating because my line was getting a lot of chances and generating a lot offensively. We had two turnovers by me and they ended up in the back of the net. That made it more frustrating… thankfully I made up for it in the third.”
Now just four points back of the Philadelphia Flyers for third place and an automatic playoff spot in the Metropolitan Division with two games in hand, the Islanders (27-20-14) have put together just their second four-game win streak of the season — their first since Dec. 7-13.
With the game tied at two, an extra-motivated Horvat powered through two Blues defenders toward the front of Joel Hofer’s net — an initial attempt turned away by goalie. The puck bounced right back on his stick as he bulled his way around the net, slotting a wraparound past the outstretched skate of the St. Louis goalie to spark a demonstrative celebration.
“I was just trying to get around them and get a shot off quick,” Horvat said. “I saw the rebound sitting there so I was just trying to get around as quick as possible and wrap it so thankfully it went in after that.
“I don’t know if you could tell by my celebration that I was pretty happy about that. I definitely owed [my team] that.”
Kyle Palmieri and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored 5:15 apart in the second period to tie the game while Mathew Barzal scored an empty-netter with 30.5 seconds left to put the cherry on top of another strong result. Netminder Ilya Sorokin made 18 saves.
“I liked the energy that we had even when we were down by two,” Islanders head coach Patrick Roy said. “We were playing a very good game and it was unfortunate that those two goals [were scored by the Blues]. So I was very happy when I saw the mindset and the character of our guys bouncing back.”
Following a scoreless first in which the Islanders held the lion’s share of scoring chances (8-2), the Blues struck first 1:21 into the second period when Alexey Toropchenko sent a perfectly placed wrist shot over the glove of Sorokin and into the top corner of the goal.
The visitors’ breakout was set up by a Horvat turnover on the boards near the St. Louis blueline — the puck was intercepted by Jake Neighbours, who fed Toropchenko in the neutral zone.
Just over seven minutes later, Brandon Saad lifted the stick of Horvat, who got on a Sorokin rebound in an attempt to clear the zone with a breakout pass. He was able to move the puck cross-crease to Jordan Kyrou, who stuffed the chance from in close home to double St. Louis’ advantage at the 8:30 mark of the frame.
“Those first two goals were definitely my fault,” Horvat said. “My teammates stepped up big. [Pageau] and [Palmieri] and that line were unbelievable tonight. They had our backs. They definitely had mine.”
Palmieri pulled one back for the Islanders 4:02 later when he received a stretch pass at the left point of the Blues’ blue line, streaked down the left wing, and deked from his backhand to his forehand across the face of goal to finish around Hofer.
It was his fourth goal in the last two games after recording a natural hat trick in the first period of Saturday’s 5-1 win over the Boston Bruins.
With 2:13 to go in the frame, his linemate, Pageau, tied it when he hopped on a loose puck at the left post coming from a Sebastian Aho shot that was blocked by Palmieri in front of Hofer. The Islanders center had an open net to finish into, which he did so with one touch.
“This line has been on fire,” Roy said. “Seriously, that was two big goals for us.”
On the other side of the intermission, Horvat’s relentless play following his turnovers paid off with the game-winner — a stat that was kept in place by an improving Islanders defense that shut St. Louis down in the final minutes. It ultimately set up the team’s second empty-net goal of the season through Barzal on an easy breakaway tap-in with Horvat on the ice to keep the visitors at bay one last time in the game’s final minute
“I saw that he wanted it,” Roy said. “That’s why I put him back on the ice at the end of the game because I knew I could trust him. I knew that he was playing heavy in that third period. He was on a mission. He wanted to give it back to his teammates and be a difference maker.”
