Barzal effort versus Stars earned win for Islanders

DETROIT — The game-winning goal Monday night in Dallas went to Bo Horvat, but the game-winning shift belonged to Mat Barzal.

This was a 49-second effort that comprised all three zones — starting two breaks, winning the puck back along the wall twice and ultimately dishing it to Horvat for the one-time shot that finished the game with a 3-2 Islanders victory over the Stars.

“I hopped on and I saw [Kyle Palmieri] kind of in trouble. So he just gave me a little pass in the slot. I knew [Jamie] Benn was maybe watching the puck a little bit. Just turned quickly and created a two-on-one with [Noah Dobson]. I was actually frustrated I didn’t get it through,” Barzal told The Post following Wednesday’s practice with near-perfect recall of a shift that took place nearly 48 hours earlier. “Puck went behind me. I just stayed on it. I knew, there’s trigger moments in overtime where you can go after a guy. I felt like I was right on him, so I tried to go after him. It was that younger kid, [Logan] Stankoven, who was having a really good game actually. I just went after it. Got it.”

That play, along the right wall in the Dallas zone, was when the individual effort on Barzal’s part started to take on a different quality. That would only grow.

“[Esa] Lindell came at me. Kind of just protected it on him. I knew the play was kinda dead. So just got rid of it to Bo, just to settle things down,” Barzal said. “Bo gave it to me. I knew Lindell had been out there for a little while with me. So I tried to challenge him one-on-one.

“Cut back. Couldn’t really find anything. Cut back again. Just tried to buy some time. I turned up. I wanted to actually shoot one cause I was so tired, I literally couldn’t have taken another stride. And then Bo was just sitting there in the slot. It worked out.”

Barzal, despite exerting most of his energy, did not consider hopping off the ice when the puck came back into the defensive zone.

“I just caught my breath a little bit when we were bringing the puck back,” he said. “Obviously, there’s moments where you gotta step up. I felt like I was gonna make a play and try to get us a win. Bo had a great bury — he ripped that puck. That’s a goal-scorer’s goal. I knew Lindell was out there for a little while. I figured me and him were both probably on our last little breath there.”

A goal-scorer’s goal, and a playmaker’s play.

“Barzy, Bo and Brock [Nelson], these three are game-changers,” coach Patrick Roy said. “And on that [play], he was a game-changer.”