Bo Horvat's hat trick leads NY Islanders past Edmonton for first win of the season

Bo Horvat scored three goals — including a short-handed equalizer and a late power-play game-winner — to propel the New York Islanders to their first victory of the season, a 4-2 comeback win over the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night at UBS Arena.

Seven seconds after Trent Frederic’s high-sticking penalty on rookie Matthew Schaefer, Horvat buried a feed from Mathew Barzal with 4:46 remaining to send the Long Island crowd into a roar. Horvat completed the hat trick with an empty-netter in the final seconds, punctuating a night when the Islanders finally found the finishing touch that had eluded them in an 0-3 start.

Barzal opened the scoring for New York and added the primary assist on Horvat’s winner, while David Rittich stopped 30 of 32 shots in his Islanders debut. “He made it easy for me,” Rittich said with a grin after the game. “He even drove me to the rink.”

Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored for Edmonton, and Connor McDavid picked up an assist, but the Oilers couldn’t overcome a string of defensive miscues — most notably from Evan Bouchard, whose turnovers directly led to multiple Islanders chances and goals.

Bouchard, one of the NHL’s highest-paid defensemen, was stripped by Barzal in the neutral zone on New York’s first goal and later allowed Horvat to blow past him on the power-play breakaway that broke the 2-2 tie.

The win was a much-needed confidence boost for a team still finding its rhythm under Patrick Roy. Rookie defenseman Matthew Schaefer, facing McDavid for the first time in a symbolic matchup of No. 1 overall picks a decade apart, logged 17:38 of ice time and drew the key penalty that set up the go-ahead goal.

“It was just a matter of time,” Roy said afterward. “We’ve been playing the right way. Tonight we got rewarded.”