Horvat Earns Third Iron Man Mask as Isles Top Penguins 5-4 in Overtime

A nine-goal, four-period boxing match left Bo Horvat and the New York Islanders with their mitts in the air on Tuesday night.

Horvat broke free on a breakaway and snapped home the OT winner to cap off a three-point (2G, 1A) night as the Islanders topped the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-4. Horvat’s superhero effort won him his third Iron Man mask as the Islanders player of the game at UBS Arena.

“You’d like to think it was coming,” Horvat said after his biggest night since returning from injury. “You try to not think about it and do other things away from the puck that go unnoticed and eventually get rewarded for it. So, to finally get the reward, it was great.”

That was the Canadian forward’s 12th career overtime winner and seventh as a member of the Islanders.

New York tallied all five of their goals while the Penguins were held scoreless in Horvat’s 24:35 TOI in the victory. He added two hits, two blocked shots and eight face-off wins on Tuesday night.

“I thought every time he had the puck, he made a good play,” said Mathew Barzal, who also had a three-point night (1G, 2A). “I’ve said it so many times, but he’s got such a great shot and I’m always looking forward to put him in a space that he can shoot.”

The 30-year-old forward has just one game before he flies almost 4,000 miles to Milan, Italy to represent Team Canada at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026. It will be his first Olympic Games in his career.

“You’ve got to give credit to those guys going to the Olympics,” Barzal said. “These guys leave in four days, for what is probably their biggest hockey moment ever, and they’re out there just competing as hard as anybody.”

Horvat is up to 38 points (23G, 15A) in his 12th NHL season. His 23 tallies lead the Isles despite missing 15 games in the 2025-26 campaign.

A win against the Penguins snapped a two-game losing streak ahead of the Olympic break and was key with the Columbus Blue Jackets and Philadelphia Flyers each notching victories in the tight Metropolitan Division on Tuesday night.

“We’ve gone through stretches and games, especially the last couple, where we’ve actually played really good hockey and just haven’t got the result,” Horvat said. “For us to get that result tonight, maybe not having our best [game], definitely boosted us going into Thursday.”

Carson Soucy was the most recent Iron Man mask recipient before Horvat.