ELMONT, NY — Marat Khusnutdinov scored the tying goal in regulation and the winning goal in the third round of the shootout to lift the Boston Bruins to a 4-3 victory over the New York Islanders on Tuesday night at UBS Arena.
The Boston forward drew the Bruins level at three apiece with 4:54 remaining in regulation after picking up Fraser Minten’s rebound and carrying the puck on his backhand around a sprawled-out Ilya Sorokin.
The Islanders’ netminder made 23 saves while Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman made 27 stops and an additional three in the shootout on Simon Holmstrom, Bo Horvat, and Jonathan Drouin.
The loss snaps the Islanders’ (6-5-2) two-game win streak.
Regardless of the shootout miss, Horvat stayed red-hot, scoring twice in regulation, including he go-ahead tally 5:05 into the third period to give the Islanders a slim advantage down the stretch. Anthony Duclair provided the host’s opener early in the second period.
“He’s got a hot stick,” Islanders captain Anders Lee said of Horvat. “He has an ability to create a shot on his own, and he can rip it. Those were some big goals for us… When he’s rolling like that, that’s huge for our team.”
Duclair, who had not scored in his previous five games and did not have a shot on goal in his last two, put the Islanders up 5:11 into the second period when his spinning wrist shot from the left circle caught Swayman by surprise, whizzing over the netminder’s pads.
“We got some good opportunities,” Duclair said. “I thought our line did the best we could. I think communicating with [Casey Cizikas] and [Kyle MacLean] before games, just making sure our game is staying simple and making sure we’re hard on the forecheck. We want to be trustworthy.”
Mayhem broke loose midway through the frame when Nikita Zadorov got tangled up with Islanders rookie Matthew Schaefer. The Bruins’ blue liner crosschecked Schaefer up high, sending him to the ice. While Schaefer held on to his stick, Zadorov gave him another shot up high to face, prompting Duclair and Anders Lee to jump the Boston defender.
“I felt like the referee had a lot of choices,” Islanders head coach Patrick Roy said. “He could call cross-check, could have called roughing, could have called interference. Might’ve been able to have a four-minute power play, isn’t it? But I loved how the guys jumped in. The reaction of our guys, that’s what you’re looking for.”
Zadorov was assessed an interference penalty and a double-minor for roughing, though the Islanders failed to cash in on the two-minute power play.
It appeared to bite them when Viktor Arvidsson’s close-range shot was saved by Sorokin, but rebounded off Lee’s skate and in with 7:39 left in the second. But 45 seconds later, Horvat tallied his eighth goal of he season when he snuck a wrister on a 2-on-1 rush past the toe of Swayman.
“It was bad luck,” Roy said. “Sorokin was really good, made some really good saves when we needed. I’m really happy for him because he’s playing with a lot of confidence right now.”
The Bruins got it right back with 2:31 left in the second while on the power play following a Lee cross-check. Pavel Zacha finished into an open net following a sliding Sorokin save that pulled him to his right post.
Horvat put the Islanders back in front 5:05 into the third period with his second of the night, just seconds after killing off a Schaefer cross-check. After Schaefer was found with a pass upon exiting the penalty box at the Bruins’ blue line, he fed an on-rushing Horvat, who entered the zone and snapped a wrister over the glove of Swayman.
