Islanders' Bo Horvat delivers much-needed win with overtime goal to beat Penguins

This could be a first-round playoff series if the Islanders and Penguins maintain their positions within the Metropolitan Division.

That’s still a big if. But Tuesday night had the tension and urgency associated with a postseason game. More importantly for the Islanders, they showed the resilience to overcome three deficits for a 5-4 overtime win at UBS Arena to snap a two-game losing streak.

“It was definitely a playoff atmosphere, playoff competitiveness out there,” said Bo Horvat, who scored on a breakaway 52 seconds into overtime after snapping a personal seven-game goal drought dating to Dec. 3 by crashing the net to tie it 1-1 at 18:41 of the first period. “Not a lot of room, not a lot of time and space. It definitely felt like a playoff game.”

The third-place Islanders (31-21-5) moved within one point of the second-place Penguins (28-15-12), who have played two fewer games. The Islanders are also four points ahead of the Blue Jackets, who have won six straight, and the Capitals, who beat them, 4-1, in Washington on Monday night.

“Where we are in the standings, we would have taken it at the start of the year, being two points in in a really tight race,” said Mathew Barzal, who tied it at 3-3 with a shot from the blue line at 8:37 of the third period and added two assists in a plus-4 performance.

“Tonight was just massive. You’re playing a team that you’re right there with. Down a goal. Up a goal. Down a goal. Just a great game.”

The Islanders now have just Thursday night’s road match against the Devils remaining before the three-week Olympic break. That will end a grueling stretch of six games in nine days.

“There’s belief in here,” said defenseman Ryan Pulock, who skated into the slot to tie it 4-4 at 15:24 of the third period shortly after a called high-sticking penalty on Marc Gatcomb was overturned. “It doesn’t really matter the score. If we’re down. If we’re tied. There’s a belief in here that we can do it the right way and find a way to win any night. This group is resilient. There’s nights where it works and there’s nights where it doesn’t but I feel like every night we push it to the end and give it a shot. Tonight we got rewarded.”

The Islanders got 31 saves from Ilya Sorokin and their penalty kill was 2-for-2, offsetting their 0-for-2 power play that did not generate a shot and keeps looking worse.

The Penguins’ Stuart Skinner stopped 18 shots.

“Tonight was a game we had to be resilient,” coach Patrick Roy said. “A game where we had to battle to come back. Bo and Barzy had a strong game and scored big goals for us. It’s funny, you throw pucks at the net and good things happen.”

Not doing so was definitely an issue in their previous two games, including Saturday night’s 4-3 loss to the visiting Predators, and the Islanders started off Tuesday again passing up too many shots while trying to make the extra pass.

That started to change late in the first period as Horvat and Matthew Schaefer, with a blue-line goal at 19:56, gave the Islanders a 2-1 lead. Schaefer’s 16th goal, which came with the Islanders skating six on five after a delayed call on Evgeni Malkin for slashing Simon Holmstrom, moved him within one of tying Hall of Famer Phil Housley’s NHL record for an 18-year-old defenseman.

By the third period, the Islanders were playing a simpler game with more straight-line action to the crease.

“Just guys responding and us not getting down on ourselves,” said Horvat, who also added an assist in a plus-5 performance. “Not shying away from the fight.”

Roy benched right wing Anthony Duclair after four shifts in the first period (3:04 of ice time). Duclair was on the ice for the Penguins’ first goal by Anthony Mantha at 12:09 and played just one more shift.

“It was an important game,” Roy said. “Duke will be fine. I did not like the [defensive] tracking and that’s all. It’s nothing more than that.”

Even Pulock was skipped briefly in the second period after he was on the ice for both of the Penguins’ goals in the middle frame.

By Andrew Gross

andrew.gross@newsday.comAGrossNewsday

Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.