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NEW YORK — Bo Horvat scored 46 seconds into overtime as the New York Islanders recovered after giving up a two-goal lead and beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3 on Monday night.
Brock Nelson and Kyle Palmieri each had a goal and an assist, and Casey Cizikas also scored to help the Islanders win their third straight game. Noah Dobson had three assists and Ilya Sorokin finished with 36 saves.
In the extra period, Horvat scored on a feed from Mathew Barzal to push the Islanders ahead of Philadelphia into second place in the Metropolitan Division — trailing only the rival New York Rangers.
“You are trying to skate as hard as you can to make a clear cut two-on-one,” Horvat said after the Islanders improved to 8-1-2 in their last 11 games. “With a saucer pass like that you don’t want to just whack at it and hope for the best. You kind of got to let it sit a little bit and pick your spot. You are trying to think of that in a matter of half a second and thankfully it worked.”
John Tavares had a goal and an assist to reach 1,000 career points, and Auston Matthews and Morgan Rielly also scored as Toronto snapped a two-game win streak. William Nylander had two assists and Ilya Samsonov made 27 saves.
The Islanders led 3-1 before Tavares pulled the Maple Leafs within one as he redirected a shot from defenseman Conor Timmins at 7:43 of the second period.
Rielly tied it with 7 seconds remaining in regulation. Nylander fired a puck toward the net that bounced off Tavares and Rielly controlled the loose puck.
“It hurts but at the same time you’re sitting there with so little time left and you’re banking one (point),” Nelson said of the team’s mindset following the late equalizer. “It’s just a new game and you have to get back to it. You can’t sit there and think about what happened and what went wrong. Just wipe it and try to get the next one.”
Tavares became the 98th player in NHL history to hit the 1,000-points mark (435 goals, 565 assists) on the play.
“Happy that it came in a really good moment for the team and and it’s been a great ride so far, great journey,” Tavares said. Obviously you want to celebrate in a win, but very proud of it. … And obviously, for me, the uniqueness of doing it where I played my first nine years of my career and a big part of who I am. And, the way this place impacted me it was tremendous. Really unique and cool to do it here. You know, place means a lot,”
Matthews had a power-play goal to open the scoring at 5:50 of the first period. He deftly received a quick pass from Mitch Marner on his backhand and quickly fired the puck with his forehand past Sorokin into the top corner of the net for his 19th.
Nelson tied it at 9:20 of the first with his 12th. Palmieri saw Nelson darting toward an open area in the slot and slid a backhand pass to set up the one-timer.
Cizikas fought off a check from Maple Leafs forward Max Domi and roofed a backhand past Samsonov to give the the Islanders a 2-1 lead with 1:27 remaining in the opening period.
“Their line finds ways to forecheck the hell out of other teams and find ways to get pucks turned over, and they go to the net,” Palmieri said of the Islanders fourth line. “Casey is a great hockey player and that is a great goal.”
Palmieri gave the Islanders a two-goal lead with his eighth at 1:10 of the second. Nelson found his linemate all alone in the slot with a pretty pass from behind the net.
SABRES 5, COYOTES 2
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Kyle Okposo and Eric Robinson each had a goal and two assists as the Buffalo Sabres beat the Arizona Coyotes.
JJ Peterka, Peyton Krebs, and Rasmus Dahlin also scored, and Connor Clifton had two assists to help the Sabres to their second win in three games. Devon Levi made 21 saves.
Michael Kesselring and Michael Carcone scored, and Karel Vejmelka stopped 33 shots in his first start since Nov. 22 for the Coyotes, who have lost three straight following a five-game win streak.
The Sabres grabbed a 1-0 lead at 2:25 of the first period when Okposo buried a rebound from a shot by Robinson past Vejmelka for his fifth goal.
Kesselring tied it for the Coyotes at 3:01 of the second as he received a pass from Logan Cooley and beat Levi for his first NHL goal.
Robinson, acquired from Columbus last Wednesday, got his first goal with the Sabres at 6:14 of the middle period to make it 2-1.
Krebs made it a two-goal game at 10:52 when he snapped the puck past Vejmelka after a give-and-go with Okposo.
Peterka made it 4-1 with 4:54 left in the second with his 12th when he banked the puck off Vejmelka’s leg pad.
Carcone’s 14th came short-handed with 7:13 left in the third period and cut the Sabres lead to 4-2. Dahlin’s empty-net goal with 1:05 to play capped the scoring.
Sabres forward Alex Tuch returned to practice on Monday morning and will likely return to the lineup this week. Tuch has been out of the lineup since he sustained a lower-body injury Dec. 3 against Nashville.
Coyotes defenseman Sean Durzi did not play and is listed as day-to-day because of a lower-body injury.
STARS 6, RED WINGS 3
DALLAS — Miro Heiskanen scored two goals, Stars captain Jamie Benn recorded his 500th career assist and Dallas won over the Detroit Red Wings, who were without injured captain Dylan Larkin and suspended forward David Perron.
Jason Robertson and Esa Lindell each had a goal and an assist as the Stars won their 11th consecutive home game over the Red Wings since January 2017.
Perron was suspended six games without pay by the NHL on Monday for his retaliatory cross-check two days earlier against Ottawa defenseman Artem Zub. That came in the aftermath of Larkin being knocked unconscious when cross-checked in the back of the head and neck by Senators forward Mathieu Joseph.
Dallas went ahead to stay on Lindell’s goal at the very end of the first period. Replay showed the puck hitting the left post with 0.2 seconds left on the clock and ricocheting over the line to make it 2-1.
Lindell had the primary assist on Robertson’s ninth goal midway through the second period before Matt Duchene’s goal for a 4-1 lead. Joe Pavelski added a power-play goal with 6:09 left in the game, only 30 seconds after Joe Veleno had one for Detroit.
Robertson and Benn assisted on Heiskanen’s power-play goal that tied the game 1-1 in the first period. Heiskanen added an empty-netter with 42 seconds left in the game.
Stars goalie Jake Oettinger had 27 saves. Detroit’s James Reimer stopped 29 of 34 shots.
Benn, playing in his 1,057th career game, joined Mike Modano and Neal Broten as the only players with 500 assists for the franchise. Benn also has 367 goals, and the captain’s 867 career points matched Broten for second-most, still well behind Modano’s 1,359 points (557 goals, 802 assists).