Islanders rake Maple Leafs, 4-3, in OT Horvat goal in OT lifts Isles to win

In Elmont, Morgan Rielly scored with seven seconds left in regulation to get the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs tied with the Islanders, 3-3, on Monday night.

The euphoria of getting the game tied lasted all of 53 seconds of game time when Mathew Barzal  set up Bo Horvat who scored with 46 seconds gone in extra time to give the Isles a 4-3 win.

“Barzal and I looked at each other and just said, ‘Chance to be the heroes, I guess, tonight,’ and he made a heck of a play to get it over to me, and I had to put it in the net from there,” Horvat said.

Ilya Sorokin made 34 saves in the win.

New York improved to 13-7-7.

“We did face some adversity,” New York coach Lane Lambert said. “I thought, for the most part in the third period, we played the game we wanted to play. They pulled the goalie. They’ve got a lot of skill, and they ended up tying the hockey game, but we found a way, and that’s what good teams do.”

The Maple Leafs took a 1-0 lead in the game on a power play marker from Auston Matthews 5:50 of the opening stanza.

Brock Nelson replied for the Islanders with a strike at 9:20 to tie it, 1-1.

New York’s Casey Cizikas put the Isles ahead 2-1 at 18:33 of the first.

“It’s hard work,” Cizikas said. “I mean, it starts from our own end with (defenseman Mike) Reilly, who has a guy on his back and he makes an unbelievable pass up the middle to get out of the zone, and the rest is history from there.”

The Maple Leafs dropped to 14-6-5.

Kyle Palmieri  scored with 70 seconds gone in the middle frame to give the Islanders a 3-1 advantage.

“It’s good. Obviously, we want to keep giving ourselves chances, create offense, and be sound in our zone,” Palmieri said on his chemistry with Nelson. “I think Pierre (Engvall) has done a great job this year. I mean, Pierre and Nelson are both great players. … For me, it’s really just to try and complement them and find some ice to get into it.”

Toronto rallied with two goals to tie it and force the extra session.

John Tavares cut trimmed the deficit to 3-2 at 7:43 of the middle frame.

Tavares picked up his 1,000th career point in the game.

“It’s been a great ride so far, a great journey,” Tavares said. “Obviously, you want to celebrate in a win, but I’m very proud of it and, in certain ways, just kind of happy it’s happened.

“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. So, really unique and cool to do it here.”

Ilya Samsonov made 27 saves in the loss.