The Upshot: Horvat and Barzal lead the NY Islanders to another O.T. win over Dallas

HOW IT HAPPENED

Bo Horvat converted a pass from Mathew Barzal at 2:54 of overtime to lift the New York Islanders to a 3-2 win over the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center on Monday night. Ryan Pulock and Kyle MacLean also had goals for the Islanders (24-20-14), who broke a two-game losing streak. Ilya Sorokin had 30 saves in the win. For the Stars (35-16-9), Matt Duchene scored a power-play goal, and Logan Stankoven scored his first NHL goal. Scott Wedgewood made 25 saves in the loss.

WHAT WENT RIGHT

The Islanders rolled out four new lines, with Brock Nelson, Bo Horvat, and Mathew Barzal assembling a new, faster top line. There was concern over how the new line would impact the rest of the lineup, but at least on this night, all three lines were solid making it likely that we see the same line combinations on Thursday in Detroit.

“I thought every line had something,” head coach Patrick Roy said. “We had a good practice yesterday, it had a very good vibe. It's fun to see them be rewarded.” As expected, Roy leaned heavily on the new line, with Barzal leading all forwards with 25:17 TOI, Horvat close behind at 25:07, and Nelson playing 22:28.

WHAT WENT WRONG

Another game, another power-play goal allowed.

Matt Duchene scored his 23rd of the season 7:11 into the second period to tie the game at 1-1. Other than that, the Islanders played a really clean game, with Ryan Pulock taking the only penalty that led to the Duchene goal. They avoided the costly penalty in a big spot down the stretch of the game, which afforded them the ability to secure a point and then earn a second.

STATS OF THE GAME

Per NHL PR, Bo Horvat became the second player in team history with multiple overtime goals in a single season against one franchise joining Jason Blake (2 vs BUF in 2002-03) and Brock Nelson (2 vs PIT in 2019-20).

Horvat scored the overtime winner at UBS Arena in Patrick Roy's first game behind the Islanders bench last month. It was his third OT of the season, which is tied for the most among all players with Dallas’ Thomas Harley, Montreal’s Cole Caufield, and Nashville’s Filip Forsberg.

SOCIAL MEDIA MOMENT OF THE GAME

Watch the entire Mathew Barzal shift again.

WHAT'S NEXT

The Islanders are in Detroit on Thursday night to battle Patrick Kane and the surging Red Wings.

Face-off is set for 7:00 PM EST