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.
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.
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.
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.
A Blues turnover moments later gave Simon Holmstrom a prime chance to tie the game with Joel Hofer out of his net, but the forward’s wrister managed to hit the outstretched padded leg of the sprawling netminder desperately trying to get back into position.
The missed chance was felt all the more when Blues forward Brandon Saad lifted the stick of Horvat, who got on a Sorokin rebound in an attempt to clear the zone. 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…
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