Matthew Schaefer scores twice as Islanders rally to defeat Blue Jackets
Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer scores against the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first period at UBS Arena on Sunday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Patrick Roy doesn’t mind a little tense drama to keep the home fans engaged.
Providing his Islanders win.
No. 1 overall pick Matthew Schaefer’s first career two-goal game — which gave him five goals and 10 points in his first 12 games — helped see to that.
Despite an overwhelming early edge in shots against the tired Blue Jackets, who were playing a second game within 22 hours, the Islanders couldn’t take more than a one-goal advantage. But two goals within 29 seconds late in the third period powered a 3-2 victory on Sunday at UBS Arena to start a three-game homestand and snapped the Blue Jackets’ winning streak at four games.
“I thought that was a solid 60 minutes,” Roy said. “And I was happy for our fans because we need some games like this. A little bit of drama at the end, that’s not too bad because I thought we were the better team on the ice.”
Schaefer’s shot from the left point snuck through traffic to tie it at 2-2 at 18:53 of the third period with goalie David Rittich (20 saves) pulled for an extra skater. He leads all NHL defensemen in goals.
Simon Holmstrom poked a loose puck at the crease past Elvis Merzlikins (36 saves) for the winner at 19:22.
“We really grinded them out there,” said Schaefer, whose power-play goal from the high slot opened the scoring at 5:53 of a lopsided first period just a day after he was named October’s rookie of the month. “It’s fun hockey to play and fun hockey to watch, too, when your team goes to work, and a couple of big goals there in the last minute.”
The Islanders (6-5-1) won their second straight after finishing a 1-2-1 road trip with Friday’s 3-1 victory in Washington.
Pulling off this type of improbable win after defenseman Denton Mateychuk gave the Blue Jackets (7-5-0) a 2-1 lead with a backhander at the crease at 12:10 of the third period certainly could give the Islanders confidence.
“Yeah,” defenseman Ryan Pulock said. “That’s two in a row. You take that momentum. Sometimes when you win like that, you get a little more confidence or whatever it might bring to the group, and you just try to feed off of that and keep it going.”
“I hope so as well,” Roy said. “It’s nice to be rewarded when you play a good game, especially knowing that we could come back in games like this. That could be also a positive thing for us.”
An airtight penalty kill also can be a confidence-booster. The Islanders went 4-for-4, allowing the Blue Jackets five shots on the man advantage. Three of the penalties came in the second period, sapping the Islanders’ first-period momentum.
“The guys are having good sticks,” Kyle Palmieri said. “We changed some things coming out of camp that maybe took a little bit to really take hold.”
Roy kept his forward alignment intact from the end of Friday’s 3-1 win, with Mathew Barzal on Bo Horvat’s wing along with Emil Heineman and Cal Ritchie centering Palmieri and Jonathan Drouin on the second line.
It marked the first time Horvat and Barzal have started a game together since Feb. 1, when Barzal suffered a season-ending knee injury.
Ritchie logged 13:56 with one shot in his second NHL game.
The Islanders built an 18-3 shot advantage in the first period against the Blue Jackets, who beat the visiting Blues, 3-2, on Saturday night.
Miles Wood’s redirection at the crease tied it at 1-1 at 15:21 of the second period. The Islanders went 7 minutes, 51 seconds between shots in the middle frame.
Notes & quotes: Roy alternated his goalies for the fourth straight game but insisted he has not gone to a straight rotation, citing 15 games in November as a reason to share the load. He said Ilya Sorokin will start against the visiting Bruins on Tuesday night . . . Roy said forward Max Shabanov (upper body), who missed his sixth game, skated on Sunday but was not close to returning . . . Jets tight end Jeremy Ruckert, an Islanders fan from Lindenhurst, served as the analyst on the radio broadcast for a portion of the first period . . . The Islanders won 32 of 47 faceoffs (68%), with Horvat going 11-for-13 and Jean-Gabriel Pageau 10-for-12.
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
