Islanders vs. Blackhawks: Bo Horvat Scores Twice as New York Cruises Past Chicago 4-1

Bo Horvat has turned the first week of the season into a personal power-play clinic. The Islanders captain scored on the man advantage for a third straight game Thursday night, added an empty-netter, and Ilya Sorokin spent most of the evening making Chicago's shooters look like they were firing at a closed garage door.

The New York Islanders beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-1 at UBS Arena. Emil Heineman and Anthony Duclair also scored, Logan Stanley had two assists, and Sorokin made 22 saves, with only Frank Nazar solving him, late in the third.

Special Teams Set the Tone

The first period was tight, scrappy and scoreless until the very end. Then Oliver Moore went off for hooking at 18:58, and the Islanders needed only seconds to make it hurt. Horvat won the draw to Matthew Schaefer, Arvid Soderblom kicked out Schaefer's point shot, and Horvat was right there to corral the rebound, shift it over and slip it inside the post at 19:01.

"Getting the first goal was, I think, important," Islanders coach Peter DeBoer said. "It was an important power play. I thought our special teams were the difference early in the game."

Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill pointed to one stretch in particular, and he was not happy about it.

"We turned the puck over, take a penalty and we blew an assignment on the penalty kill," Blashill said. "We just beat ourselves."

The Turning Point: A Save, Then a Surge

The game could have looked very different at 1:08 of the second. Cole Smith broke in alone and tried a backhand, and Sorokin made the stop but slid into his own net on the play. The Situation Room reviewed it and found no conclusive evidence the puck crossed the line, so it stayed 1-0.

Five and a half minutes later, the Islanders made Chicago pay. Matias Maccelli spotted Heineman slashing into the slot and fed him from the right wall, and Heineman did the rest at 6:44, with Adam Pelech also assisting. Then at 9:38, Duclair's forecheck forced a turnover, Jean-Gabriel Pageau kept it alive, and Stanley found Duclair at the back door for a one-timer and his first goal of the season. Three goals, two periods, ballgame.

Stanley said Duclair was screaming for the puck, and he credited his teammate's voice as much as his hands.

"So it's good talk by him. If he doesn't yell for it, who knows if I see him out of the corner of my eyes," Stanley said.

Patrick Kane put Chicago's frustration simply.

"You feel like you are in control of the game. Then, they get one off the power play and they get one off a turnover and it's 2-0 and you're chasing the game," Kane said.

Sorokin's Wall and a Messy Finish

Sorokin entered the night riding a shutout from Saturday, a 6-0 win over New Jersey, and NHL.com noted his scoreless streak reached 165:31, the longest of his career. Along the way, at 8:00 of the third, he set the longest home shutout streak to begin a season in Islanders franchise history at 108:00, passing Glenn Resch's 107:20 from 1975-76.

Nazar finally broke through at 17:26 of the third with Soderblom pulled for an extra attacker, hammering a one-timer from between the circles off a pass from Kane, with Sam Rinzel also assisting. That assist, the 893rd of Kane's career, moved him within one of tying Phil Housley for the most by an American-born player in NHL history, per NHL.com.

Horvat sealed it at 18:27, firing into the empty net for his second of the night, with Stanley picking up his second assist. The ending turned ugly. Per NHL.com, Horvat left the game after taking an illegal check to the head from Nazar following his shot, and Nazar was given a five-minute match penalty. Horvat was still being evaluated after the game. Tyler Bertuzzi and Stanley each received misconducts at the same stoppage.

Horvat, Stanley and the Islanders' Blue Line

Horvat finished with two goals, five hits and nine faceoff wins in 17:53. Per the box score, his two goals were his third and fourth of the season, and he has at least a point in all four games so far. Stanley was a quiet force with two assists, two hits and three blocked shots in 23:51, while Schaefer logged 26:45.

Pelech's assist on Heineman's goal was his 179th point, which tied Mark Streit for 10th in Islanders history among defensemen, per NHL.com.

Soderblom made 15 saves on 18 shots for Chicago. The Blackhawks actually outshot New York 23-19, which is part of why their bench left the rink feeling the scoreboard was a little rude.

Stats That Matter

• 3: Straight games with a power-play goal for Horvat.
• 165:31: Sorokin's career-best shutout streak before Nazar scored.
• 23-19: Shots, Chicago over New York. Sorokin made the difference.
• 25-15: Hits, Islanders over Blackhawks.
• 59.2%: The Islanders' faceoff win rate, 29 of 49.

What It Means

The Islanders improve to 2-2-0 and are 2-0-0 at home, winning for the second time in three games. They did it two days after losing defenseman Alexander Romanov, who the AP reported will miss the rest of the regular season with a torn ACL in his right knee. Heineman sounded like a player who wants a run.

"I like the way we played as a team and how we bounced back," Heineman said. "We want to get things on a roll now."

Chicago drops to 1-4-0, all four losses on the road, and has now lost four of five to open the season. The Blackhawks host Carolina on Saturday. The Islanders host Tampa Bay the same night.

The Takeaway

The Islanders did not need to be flashy. They needed a captain who keeps showing up on the power play, a goalie playing like the final boss of a video game, and a group in front of him willing to block 17 shots. They got all three. The only real worry is how Horvat comes out of that final sequence, and that is not a small one.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details from the Associated Press and NHL.com; postgame quotes as reported by NHL.com.