![\"Bo](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2026-03-08T060112Z_149054755_MT1USATODAY28437513_RTRMADP_3_NHL-NEW-YORK-ISLANDERS-AT-SAN-JOSE-SHARKS.jpeg\" "\\"Bo")
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Mar 7, 2026; San Jose, California, USA; New York Islanders center Bo Horvat (14) scores the game-winning goal against San Jose Sharks goaltender Yaroslav Askarov (30) in the overtime period at SAP Center at San Jose. Mandatory Credit: Robert Edwards-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Bo Horvat knows big goals, the latest of which came on Saturday night with his overtime winner against the San Jose Sharks when he slid a breakaway chance off a feed from Matthew Schaefer under the pads of Yaroslav Askarov.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Perhaps the New York Islanders do not possess a more clutch player than the star center. This was his second overtime winner of the season \u2014 the first coming in a comeback win over the Pittsburgh Penguins at UBS Arena on Feb. 3. It stopped an alarming two-game skid to start a west-coast road trip, which allowed the Columbus Blue Jackets to move within four points of the Islanders for the third and final automatic playoff spot in the Metropolitan Division.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This has been a theme of Horvat\u2019s all season, though. Along with his two overtime winners, he has six go-ahead goals scored in the third period and six game-winners overall. Only four players in the NHL (Steven Stamkos, Dylan Larkin, Cole Caufield, and Brock Nelson) have more.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Two injury stints that resulted in a 14-game absence might have robbed Horvat of putting up one of the best goal-scoring seasons in recent memory, at least in terms of the aggregate. He has 27 goals in 50 games, which is an 82-game pace of 44 goals. That would have made him just the fourth Islander in the last 30 seasons (Zigmund Palffy, Jason Blake, Anders Lee) to reach the 40-goal mark.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His offensive punch, though, is undeniable. Averaging 0.54 goals per game, the Islanders have not had that volume of scoring in a full season since Palffy scored 45 goals<\/a> in 82 games in 1997-98 \u2014 a mark of .548 goals per game. Former captain John Tavares scored 28 goals in the strike-shortened 2012-13 season (.58 goals per game).\u00a0<\/p>\n Should Horvat appear in the final 18 games of the 2025-26 campaign \u2014 and continue scoring at this rate \u2014 he is on pace for 36 goals by season\u2019s end. He does, however, have three goals in his last four games, which included a late second-period goal on March 1 against the Florida Panthers to knot the game up at three apiece heading into the final stanza. New York would win 5-4 behind a late goal from Anders Lee.<\/p>\n Big goals from arguably one of the Islanders\u2019 most valuable players, and the stage is only going to grow as the playoff push inches toward the wire.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n