Emil Heineman lifts Islanders over Golden Knights in shootout
Dec 9, 2025; Elmont, New York, USA; New York Islanders left wing Emil Heineman (51) celebrates his winning goal after shootouts against the Vegas Golden Knights at UBS Arena. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Schneidler-Imagn Images Bo Horvat scored two goals and Emil Heineman tallied the game-winner in the fourth round of the shootout to lead the New York Islanders to a 5-4 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday night in Elmont, N.Y.
Heineman ripped a wrist shot past the glove side of Vegas goaltender Carter Hart to win it. Marc Gatcomb and Simon Holmstrom also scored for New York, which won for the fourth time in the last five games.
It was 39th multi-goal game of Horvat's career and fourth this season. Ilya Sorokin made 32 saves to win his fourth straight start.
Mitch Marner had a goal and an assist and Jack Eichel and Mark Stone each had two assists for the Golden Knights. Noah Hanifin, Ivan Barbashev and Pavel Dorofeyev also scored goals for Vegas, which had a four-game win streak snapped. Hart finished with 23 saves.
Vegas took a 2-0 lead with two nearly identical goals in a four-minute span in the first period. Hanifin got the first to snap his 11-game goal drought. Eichel fired a shot from the right circle that Sorokin stopped with his left pad, but the rebound caromed straight to a wide-open Hanifin at the bottom of the left circle, where he roofed the rebound.
Marner followed at the 16:01 mark, putting in a rebound of Kaeden Korczak shot, also from the bottom of the left circle.
New York cut the lead to 2-1 with 27 seconds left in the period on Horvat's a one-timer from the right circle past Hart's glove side.
The Islanders tied it early in the second period when Casey Cizikas carried the puck behind the net and then spun around and hit Gatcomb with a pass in front of the crease, where he fired a shot over Hart's left pad.
New York took its first lead, 3-2, at the 13:30 mark of the second period when Holmstrom lasered a wrist shot from the top of the left circle past Hart's glove and off the far post and into the net for his first goal in 18 games.
Vegas tied it, 3-3, early in the third period on Barbashev's highlight-reel goal, swiping a one-handed shot over Sorokin's left pad as he was falling forward to the ice in the slot.
Horvat put the Islanders back in front with 9:45 remaining with a power-play goal, one-timing a Mathew Barzal pass from the high slot past Hart's glove side.
Vegas pulled Hart for an extra attacker and tied it with 14 seconds left when Dorofeyev chipped in a rebound of a Marner point shot inside the right post.
The Golden Knights' Dorofeyev, Marner, Eichel and Shea Theodore missed shots in the shootout, while the Islanders' Barzal, Holmstrom and Horvat failed before Heineman's goal.
--Field Level Media
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