Here is a sentence that was not supposed to be true this season: The Islanders will play with a chance to lead the Metropolitan Division on Saturday afternoon against the Lightning.

Actually, no, make that: The Islanders will play with a chance to lead the Eastern Conference on Saturday afternoon against the Lightning.

That was the good news for the home side at UBS Arena on Thursday as the Islanders beat Anaheim 5-2. The bad news is that they may well do so without their leading scorer after Bo Horvat left the game with an apparent injury to his left leg in the second period and did not return, with the Islanders calling it a lower-body injury.

Coach Patrick Roy said afterward that Horvat is day to day, so it at least seems as though the Islanders avoided a worst-case scenario.

Anders Lee (27) celebrates after scoring one of his two goals in the first period of the Islanders’ 5-2 win over the Ducks on Dec. 11, 2025 at UBS Arena. Robert Sabo for New York Post

With Carolina defeating the Capitals in a shootout, the Islanders finished Thursday in third place in both the Metro and the East as a whole, but just a point behind both of those teams.

“It does say a lot,” Anders Lee said. “We came in, we knew what was going on outside of us and all the change. New guys coming in. I think everyone’s just come in and played their role. They’ve played hard.

“We haven’t had things get to us too bad. We haven’t gone on too much of a slide or anything like that. I think we’ve just really stuck together in a big way.”

Two points Thursday did not come without a brief scare.

Though the Islanders held a 3-0 lead after one period that was whittled to 3-1 at the second intermission, Troy Terry’s shorthanded goal put Anaheim within one just 2:37 into the third.

Ryan Poehling beat Matthew Schaefer to pick a loose pick off the wall and fed it to Troy Terry, wide open in front of the net, for the shorty.

David Rittich makes one of his 31 saves in the Islanders’ home win over the Ducks. Robert Sabo for New York Post

Simon Holmstrom extended the lead back to two just under four minutes later, getting past Olen Zellweger with a burst of speed on the rush and going forehand-to-backhand to finish past Ville Husso.

“I thought he was confident tonight,” Roy said. “When you lose a player like Bo, you don’t try to replace him because that’s impossible. But guys have to feel for it and they have to feel the spot and find a way to perform in a nice way. I think that’s what our guys did.”

Ryan Pulock’s goal from the right point with just over five minutes to go sealed it, as his first goal of the season went off Chris Kreider’s stick and into the roof of the net to make it 5-2.

By the end of the first period, the Islanders held a 3-0 lead from a pair of unlikely sources: Travis Mitchell and their second power-play unit.

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Mitchell, the Cornell product signed as an undrafted free agent in 2023 and called up to help replace the injured Alexander Romanov two weeks ago, scored his first NHL point in his seventh game with the Islanders. After Scott Mayfield’s shot went off the end boards at 8:18 of the first, Mitchell was the first to it and slammed it home for a 1-0 Islanders lead.

“You dream of doing that when you’re a kid, scoring in the NHL,” Mitchell told The Post, adding that he plans to give the puck to his parents. “To finally be able to do that is pretty awesome. It’s an unbelievable feeling.”

Anders Lee added another goal two minutes later, and a third in the final minute of the period. Both came on the power play, both came around the crease, both came off an initial shot from Tony DeAngelo.

Simon Holmstrom scores a third-period goal on Ville Husso during the Islanders’ home win over the Ducks. NHLI via Getty Images

The injury to Horvat, however, took the air out of the balloon of what would otherwise have been another confidence-boosting win.

Not only is Horvat the Islanders’ leading scorer with 19 goals, but no one else has more than 10. He is in the midst of his best season on Long Island and has played a huge role in this team’s advancement into a contender.

The good news is it is only day to day. But every game without him in the lineup is a substantial blow.