Islanders rally again, win fifth straight on Anders Lee's goal with 30.9 seconds left

Islanders fans returned to a packed UBS Arena for the first time in nearly a month on Sunday night.

It was worth the wait.

Anders Lee’s goal with 30.9 seconds left gave the Islanders a thrilling 5-4 win over the Panthers in front of their 12th straight sellout crowd.

Lee received a pass off the boards from Tony DeAngelo (two assists) near the red line, burst past Aaron Ekblad to the crease and buried the puck behind outstretched goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.

It was the Islanders’ season-high fifth straight victory and eighth win in their last 10. They are 3-0-0 since the Olympic break, erasing a 2-0 deficit in each game. They tied the Penguins, who have played two fewer games, for second place in the Metropolitan Division.

“I finally got a puck I like tonight,” Lee said. “It was one of those nights that we just had to stick with it.”

Fans, experts, coaches and teammates alike are running out of words to describe Matthew Schaefer, who nearly was the hero against the back-to-back reigning Stanley Cup champions.

Schaefer’s 20th goal — a wrist shot that clipped defenseman Jeff Petry and went through the legs of Bobrovsky — gave the Islanders (35-21-5) a 4-3 lead with 9:31 left. But after pulling Bobrovsky for an extra skater, the Panthers (30-27-3) tied it at 4 on Sam Reinhart’s goal with 1:58 left.

Three days after setting the NHL record for the most goals by an 18-year-old defenseman, Schaefer posted his first career three-point performance. He also had a late first-period goal that cut the Islanders’ deficit to 2-1 and the lone assist on a goal by Bo Horvat that tied it at 3 with 2:46 left in the second.

“I can’t remember watching an 18-year-old do what he’s doing, especially as a D-man,” Horvat said. “It’s phenomenal. It’s fun to watch. Thank God he’s on our team, in so many ways. We’re lucky to have him. I think he’s just going to continue to keep getting better and better.”

Schaefer is only the second Islanders defenseman to score 20 goals in a season and the first since Denis Potvin (1985-86). He is tied with Dion Phaneuf (2005-06) for the third-most goals by a rookie defenseman in NHL history.

“That’s 20 goals [as] a team right there,” Schaefer said. “I wouldn’t be able to do it if it wasn’t for these guys.”

Islanders fans have showered Schaefer with love throughout his rookie season. That didn’t change Sunday, with chants of his name constantly pouring down from the seats.

“There’s a buzz in the air when he touches the puck,” Lee said. “He’s creating so much, and he’s all over the ice offensively and defensively. There’s no doubt we feed off that.”

In the second half of a back-to-back, the Islanders’ first of six in their final 23 games, backup goalie David Rittich (29 saves) made his first start since Feb. 2. He had struggled before the Olympic break and was shaky early, allowing three goals on the first 13 shots he faced.

A solid complement to Ilya Sorokin, Rittich entered Sunday with a 12-8-3 record, a .900 save percentage and 2.57 goals-against average. But he had lost four of his five previous decisions, going 1-3-1 with an .868 save percentage and a 2.88 goals-against average.

Sam Bennett’s second goal, a backhander that went under Rittich’s right arm, gave the Panthers a 3-2 lead with 7:56 left in the second period. Horvat tied the score 5:10 later.

The Panthers led 2-1 after 20 minutes. Carson Soucy’s four-on-four goal, his second with the Islanders since being acquired from the Rangers on Jan. 26, tied it at 2 with 12:32 left in the second.

A strange bounce led to Schaefer’s first goal with 1:59 left in the first period. Off a pass from Ryan Pulock, Schaefer blasted a one-timer that went off Florida defenseman Gustav Forsling’s leg, over Bobrovsky, off the cross bar, then off the back of Bobrovsky and in.

The Panthers opened the scoring 3:44 into the first period on a backhander by Sandis Vilmanis, who evaded a sliding Adam Pelech and snuck the puck under Rittich’s left pad. Bennett’s power-play goal with 5:06 left in the first made it 2-0.

“I love the fact that we don't change our game,” coach Patrick Roy said. “We stay focused and we do what we have to do.”

Notes & quotes: At the first media timeout, the Islanders honored their own Olympians — Horvat (Canada) and Ondrej Palat (Czechia) — and the Panthers’ Olympians, including American forward Matthew Tkachuk, who received a roaring ovation . . . Jonathan Drouin (lower-body injury) is day-to-day and did not play . . . Anthony Duclair played 13:22 in his first game since Feb. 3 – the Islanders’ most recent home game before Sunday – against the Penguins, when he was benched after four first-period shifts.

By Ben Dickson

benjamin.dickson@newsday.com@bendickson__

Ben Dickson is Newsday Sports' general assignment reporter. He joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.