Just a week after acquiring former Vancouver Canucks captain Bo Horvat, the New York Islanders hosted the Canucks at the UBS Arena in the season's second game between the two teams.
While Horvat is yet to return to Vancouver for his homecoming against his former team, he netted a key goal for the Islanders on Thursday night, scoring late in the second period.
Anthony Beauvillier also joined in on the fun, as the piece going the other way in the Horvat deal iced the game for the Canucks in the 6-5 win.
Here’s how NHL fans reacted:
Bo Horvat and Anthony Beauvillier both score as the Canucks beat the Islanders
The game started off with a flurry of goals for either side. The Islanders opened the scoring with a Kyle Palmieri wrister from near the blue line. The Canucks tied it 39 seconds later when an Oliver Ekman-Larsson shot from the point found the back of the twine past a shielded Ilya Sorokin.
Later in the first period, the Canucks briefly took the lead when Brock Boeser one-timed it home. The Islanders once again responded when Brock Nelson landed one in the net to tie it up at the end of the first period.
The Islanders came out hot in the second, with Mathew Barzal lining up in his own office to capitalize on a power play opportunity.
The entire NHL community would have been alerted to the game with just over four minutes remaining in the second. A backhand, no-look pass from Mathew Barzal found itself on the stick of Bo Horvat, who put the puck into the net of his former employers.
Horvat slammed it home on one knee to put the Islanders up by two points.
The Canucks responded late in the period to pull the game within a goal when Nils Aman buried the puck in the net off a rebound from a Phillip Di Giuseppe wrap-around opportunity. The score read 4-3 to the Islanders after two.
The Canucks evened the score in the third period. Elias Pettersson tallied his 23rd goal of the season with a bomb from the blue line on the power play. Pettersson followed it up with his 24th, as a long stretch pass led to the Swedish forward firing a wrist shot past Sorokin’s weak side. All of a sudden, the Canucks led 5-4.
As if to add insult to injury for Islanders fans, former Islander Anthony Beauvillier netted the dagger with three minutes remaining off a Brock Boeser wrist shot that Beauvillier tipped in.
Noah Dobson pulled one back for the Islanders to make the score 6-5, but it wasn't enough to save the New York team from suffering a home defeat.