{"id":258068,"date":"2025-11-03T04:23:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T04:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/258068\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T04:23:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T04:23:08","slug":"new-york-islanders-top-pick-matthew-schaefer-sets-nhl-mark-in-12th-career-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/258068\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Islanders\u2019 top pick Matthew Schaefer sets NHL mark in 12th career game"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Matthew Schaefer<\/a> added another milestone to his fast start with the New York Islanders<\/a> on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Schaefer had two goals in a 3-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a>. Schaefer, who turned 18 on Sept. 5, became the youngest defenseman in NHL history with a multigoal game, moving in front of Hall of Famer Bobby Orr (18 years, 248 days on Nov. 23, 1966).<\/p>\n

Schaefer, the No. 1 overall pick in this year\u2019s NHL draft, has five goals and five assists in his first 12 games with New York. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been fun to watch. He\u2019s great skater. He\u2019s super poised,\u2019\u2019 Islanders teammate Simon Holmstrom<\/a> said. \u201cHe was able to score two big goals for us tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schaefer scored a power-play goal when he converted a booming shot 5:53 into the first period. He tied it at 2 with 1:07 left in the third, and Holmstrom tapped a loose puck past goaltender Elvis Merzlikins<\/a> for the winning score with 38 seconds remaining.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh wow, it\u2019s fun hockey to play and fun hockey to watch,\u2019\u2019 Schaefer said after the victory. \u201cA couple of big goals in the last minute.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schaefer once again heard his name chanted by the home crowd at UBS Arena. It was a similar scene when he scored his first NHL goal during the Islanders\u2019 home opener on Oct. 11.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a big shift. That\u2019s what happens when you put pucks on net,\u201d Schaefer said of his tying goal as Islanders captain Anders Lee<\/a> screened Merzlikins. \u201cA big grind out of the guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schaefer became the third-youngest player in the NHL\u2019s expansion era, since the 1967-68 season, to record two goals in a game. Only Jordan Staal<\/a> (18 years, 41 days on Oct. 21, 2006) and Pierre Turgeon<\/a> (18 years, 54 days on Oct. 21, 1987) accomplished the feat at a younger age.<\/p>\n

Schaefer played junior hockey last season for the Erie Otters. Now he is manning the point on New York\u2019s power play, regularly logging major minutes and contributing well beyond the scoresheet.<\/p>\n

He is quick to deflect praise, crediting Lee with successfully impeding the view of Merzlikins.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeammates, I just have to rely on them,\u2019\u2019 Schaefer said. \u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s going in if Leezy is not there screening the goalie. I don\u2019t think he really saw much.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Matthew Schaefer added another milestone to his fast start with the New York Islanders…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[712,49,48,96940,448,82],"class_list":["post-258068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-new-york-islanders-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-2","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}