In Elmont, Bo Horvat scored his 19th goal of the season with 41 seconds gone in extra time on Sunday night to give the Islanders a 3-win over the visiting Dallas Stars.
“You always want to win that first game,” Roy said. “And I’m very thankful to our players for the effort that they put out there, and I was just hoping to give a good show to our fans as well and have them enjoy their night.”
New York had trailed the Stars, 3-2 entering the third period.
Hudson Fasching scored off a deflection of a shot from Noah Dobson at 5:23 of the third to tie the game, 2-2, and force the extra session.
Ilya Sorokin made 41 saves in the win.
“[Sorokin] was really sharp. He looks really confident out there,” Roy said. “I mean, he’s been playing a lot lately. … He’s very solid. I mean, I understand why he was a Vezina candidate last year, the way he’s been playing.”
The Isles moved to 20-15-11, and won their first game under new coach Patrick Roy.
The Islanders took a 1-0 lead at 2:52 of the opening stanza on a marker from Alexander Romanov.
Dallas dropped to 27-13-6.
“I thought a really good effort considering the circumstances, back-to-back,” Stars coach Peter DeBoer said. “[Jake] Oettinger was supposed to play, but he came down with the flu. Wedgewood had to go in at the last minute. We lost [Craig] Smith in the first period to an (upper-body) injury, so we had a short bench. I thought we played a [heck] of a road game. Sometimes you hit a hot goalie, and that was probably the difference tonight.”
Dallas’ Jason Robertson tied it, 1-1, at 11:35 of the middle frame.
“Great win. Boys played hard all night,” the Islanders’ Anders Lee said. “I thought we stuck with it, especially through the second period. But all in all, all things considered, I think the boys adapted well to what was given to us today and executed very well. Our energy was good, our focus was good against a really good hockey team. We had to battle to the end. That was evident to come back and tie it up. And then, obviously, Horvat finishing it off, just a great play at the end there. Big two points for us.”
The Stars took the lead at 15:08 of the second on a strike by Nils Lundkvist
“Obviously, it’s a confidence boost,” Lundkvist said. “I’m trying to shoot the puck more and get it through and hopefully good things happen. Luckily it went in today, so I’ll try to build from that.”
Scott Wedgewood made 25 saves in the loss.

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