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Anders Lee scores the game-winning goal during the Islanders\u2019 March 1 win. NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\nThe Islanders\u2019 stirring run of comebacks from two-goal deficits incredibly continued Sunday night against the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions.<\/p>\n
And this one mostly was about their budding superstar defenseman.<\/p>\n
Just as they\u2019d done in Montreal and Columbus earlier this week \u2014 albeit this time without the need for overtime \u2014 rookie phenom Matthew Schaefer and the surging Isles stormed back from a 2-0 hole again before posting their fifth straight victory bridging the Olympic break with a rousing 5-4 decision over the Panthers at UBS Arena.<\/p>\n
Florida\u2019s Sam Reinhart evened the score with just under two minutes to play, but Isles captain Anders Lee\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are some big games,\u201d said the 18-year-old Schaefer, who scored twice to become the first Isles defenseman of any age to reach 20 goals since Denis Potvin in 1985-86. \u201cA couple of big days, obviously, a couple of overtimes. \u2026 The last couple of games we\u2019ve been down by a couple of goals and just fought back. It\u2019s a team effort.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anders Lee scores the game-winning goal during the Islanders\u2019 March 1 win. NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Schaefer\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s name multiple times.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to stay dialed in, but when I hear that from the crowd, it gets me super fired up,\u201d Schaefer said. \u201cIt\u2019s so fun. I want to hear that every night.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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Matthew Schaefer celebrates his goal during the Islanders\u2019 March 1 win. Heather Khalifa for the NY Post<\/p>\n
Schaefer, who also broke Phil Housley\u2019s 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 with less than two minutes left before intermission.<\/p>\n
\u201dI don\u2019t know how many times I\u2019ve said the word \u2018impressive,\u2019 \u201d Isles coach Patrick Roy said of Schaefer. \u201cBut he\u2019s doing things that are very special out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before the game, two-time Cup-winning coach Paul Maurice added himself to the growing list of admirers of the dynamic rookie, who now stands just three goals behind Rangers legend Brian Leetch\u2019s 23 for the all-time NHL mark for rookie defenders.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just awesome,\u201d the Panthers\u2019 bench boss said. \u201cWhen they\u2019re 18, and they can do that \u2014 like pure 18 and step in the league and be an impact player at that age \u2014 he\u2019s just going to get better and better and better. But he\u2019s not afraid to shoot the puck, not afraid to get up the ice.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s smart, like, not all offense regardless of the situation. He\u2019s got a really good balance, like, he\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOn the ice from Long Island\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Islanders by Ethan Sears, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Carson Soucy buried the equalizer with a 4-on-4 goal barely seven minutes into the middle period after Schaefer\u2019s interference penalty had negated an Isles power play. <\/p>\n
It was Soucy\u2019s second in nine games with the Isles since a late-January trade from the Rangers and his fifth overall this season.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope it\u2019s not something we do every night,\u201d Roy said of the comeback run. \u201cBut I love the fact we don\u2019t change our game and stay focused and do what we have to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Islanders\u2019 stirring run of comebacks from two-goal deficits incredibly continued Sunday night against the two-time defending Stanley…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":626050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,186483,1323,12960,405,403,1301,5226,5225,293,5228,5227,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-626049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-anders-lee","tag-florida-panthers","tag-matthew-schaefer","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-islanders","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-nhl","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116157607173807572","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}