The Islanders’ stirring string of comebacks from two-goal deficits incredibly continued Sunday night against the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions.
And this one was mostly all about their budding superstar defenseman.
Just as they’d done in Montreal and Columbus earlier this week — albeit this time without the need for overtime — rookie phenom Matthew Schaefer and the surging Isles stormed back from an 0-2 hole again before posting their fifth straight victory, bridging the Olympic break with a rousing 5-4 decision over the Panthers at UBS Arena.
Captain Anders Lee’s forehand move with 30.9 seconds left in regulation improved the Isles to 35-21-5 overall ahead of a West Coast trip beginning Wednesday in Anaheim, Calif.
The 18-year-old Schaefer’s second goal of the night and 20th already of his first professional campaign with just over nine minutes remaining in regulation snapped a 3-3 tie, but Florida’s Sam Reinhart evened matters again with just under two minutes to play.
After the Isles forced a turnover in the Florida zone, Ondrej Palat found Schaefer, who whistled a wrister off a Panthers player and between the legs of veteran goalie Sergei Bobrovsky to spark loud chants of the rookie’s name multiple times.
Schaefer already had extended his franchise record for goals by a rookie defenseman with No. 19 late in the first to spark the latest comeback bid.
Sandis Vilmanis and Sam Bennett had staked the Panthers to a 2-0 advantage against Isles backup goalie David Rittich before the 15-minute mark of the opening session.
Schaefer, who also broke Phil Housley’s league mark Thursday in Montreal for goals by an 18-year-old blueliner, fired in a pinball goal with a slapper from the right circle that hit a Florida defenseman, then the crossbar and then the back of Bobrovsky before settling across the goal line for a 2-1 game less than two minutes left before intermission.
Before the game, two-time Cup-winning coach Paul Maurice added himself to the growing list of admirers of the hotshot rookie defenseman, who now stands just three behind Rangers legend Brian Leetch’s 23 for the all-time NHL mark for rookie defenders.
“It’s just awesome,” the Panthers’ bench boss said of Schaefer before the game. “When they’re 18, and they can do that, like pure 18 and step in the league and be an impact player at that age, he’s just going to get better and better and better. But he’s not afraid to shoot the puck, not afraid to get up the ice.
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“He’ll put it across the line, but he’s smart, like, not all offense regardless of the situation. He’s got a really good balance, like, he’s played in the league for a whole bunch of years. He knows when to go and when not to go. So the Islanders got a cornerstone for their franchise for probably 20 years.”
Isles coach Patrick Roy certainly agrees about Schaefer, who had surpassed Denis Potvin’s team rookie mark for defensemen with his 18th Thursday in Montreal.
On the ice from Long Island
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That game also represented the first of consecutive comebacks from 0-2 holes on the road out of the Olympic stoppage, with 4-3 overtime wins over the Canadiens and the Blue Jackets.
Carson Soucy buried the equalizer Sunday night with a 4-on-4 goal barely seven minutes into the middle period after Schaefer’s interference penalty had negated an Isles power play.
It was Soucy’s second in nine games with the Isles since a late-January trade from the Rangers and his fifth overall this season.
Bennett buried his second of the game with a backhander off the rush around the 12-minute mark of the second, but Bo Horvat made it a 3-3 game with a hard-angle shot from the left wall past Bobrovsky with just under three minutes to play before intermission.
