Horvat gets goal, 2 assists for Islanders in win against Senators

OTTAWA -- Bo Horvat had a goal and two assists for the New York Islanders, who held off a third period rally from the Ottawa Senators to win 4-2 at the Canadian Centre on Thursday.

“That was a big win for us,” Horvat said. “We knew they were going to push there in the third but we stuck to the plan, stuck with it, and [Semyon Varlamov] made some unbelievable saves when he had to. I think we’re starting to bury our opportunities, which is nice.”

Anders Lee had a goal and an assist, and Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Oliver Wahlstrom also scored for the Islanders (6-6-2), who have won three of four. Varlamov made 28 saves.

“With all the injuries we have, I mean, we’re going to need great goaltending,” New York coach Patrick Roy said. “And Varly was really good tonight, like Ilya [Sorokin] was the game before against Pittsburgh (32 saves in 4-3 shootout win Tuesday). Goaltending is an important part of our team and tonight we had another solid performance.”

Tim Stutzle had two assists, Drake Batherson and Nick Jensen scored, and Anton Forsberg made 21 saves for the Senators (6-7-0), who had won three straight at home.

“I didn’t think we were good enough at the beginning of the game to gain any traction,” Ottawa coach Travis Green said. “Our execution was off and some of our decision making with the puck wasn’t good enough. When we figured that out, our game picked up. Made a couple mistakes on some goals that we’d like to have back, but thought we pushed.”

Lee gave the Islanders a 1-0 lead at 15:49 of the second period, scoring with a one-timer between the circles off a no-look, backhanded pass from Horvat from below the goal line.

“We played simple,” Lee said of his line with Horvat and Pageau. “I thought Bo and Pager both had great games; they were solid in the [face-off] circle. But, you know, we’re finding our spots with each other. I think the chemistry is there, understanding where each one wants to be, the communication’s great and we’re feeding into each other’s strengths.”

Pageau made it 2-0 at 18:22 when he beat Forsberg with a wrist shot under the right arm on a breakaway.

“It was a full commitment, I thought, for 60 minutes,” Pageau said. “I thought we played hard around our net. Varly was outstanding; he made some really key saves. They’re very good around the net.”

Wahlstrom pushed it to 3-0 at 2:41 of the third period. He scored with a backhanded shot from the slot shortly after Forsberg turned the puck over behind the net. Wahlstrom, Matt Martin and Kyle MacLean each got his first point of the season on the goal.

“We were all telling each other when we were hugging each other, ‘We did it,’” Wahlstrom said. “A couple bounces didn’t go our way the first couple games. You’ve just got to stick to it.”

Jensen walked in from the point and beat a screened Varlamov with a wrist shot glove side to cut it to 3-1 at 7:43. It was his first goal for the Senators after he was acquired in a trade with the Washington Capitals in exchange for defenseman Jakob Chychrun on July 1.

“Watch our team and we’re stringing together some good games, but we’re not really getting the results we want,” Jensen said. “So it’s hard to keep coming in after every game, every time you play a pretty good game where you could have won, but you don’t, and we keep saying that if we play like that we’re going to win more games than we lose, but right now we’re losing more than we win, so… We’ve got to somehow push a little bit harder to tip it over the edge a little bit.

“I’m looking around the room and on the ice, and we’ve got guys that are playing some really good hockey. I just think we’ve got to take a shift-by-shift mindset of winning every shift, because we’re playing really good and then we’re maybe taking one shift off and it’s kind of biting us.”

Batherson brought Ottawa within 3-2 at 14:27 when he took a pass from Stutzle down low and tucked the puck around Varlamov’s outstretched left pad on the power play.

“Patience is something that you’ve got to always have,” Senators captain Brady Tkachuk said. “But you also have to have a little desperation too in your game. And I think that’s what happened there in the third, we got some desperation and that’s the type of hockey we need to play, but yeah, fell short again.”

Horvat scored an empty-net goal for the 4-2 final at 19:50.

“I thought [the effort] was outstanding tonight,” Roy said. “We played patient and I thought we played the right way, and that’s the reason why we won that game. They made a push towards the second half of the third period, but I thought our guys did a really nice job. I was very pleased with the effort.”

NOTES: Islanders defenseman Isaiah George blocked four shots and played 23:59 in his second NHL game. … Tkachuk had a game-high seven hits. … Jensen had a game-high six shots.