- Matthew Schaefer played all five minutes of overtime in the Islanders’ 4-3 shootout win over the Predators
- He logged 32:16 of ice time, more than six minutes ahead of any other New York skater
- Read below for how a Predators penalty kept him on the ice
Matthew Schaefer never left the ice in overtime Tuesday night.
The Islanders defenseman played all five minutes of the extra frame in New York’s 4-3 shootout win over the Nashville Predators. According to the NHL.com game notes, he’s the first skater on record to do it since official ice time tracking began in 2009-10.
A penalty is what made it possible. Predators forward Filip Forsberg took a tripping call 2:17 into overtime, which gave the Islanders a 4-on-3 power play and a rare chance for a defenseman to catch a breather.
There was no breather. Schaefer stayed out for the full two minutes, then stayed out for the remaining 43 seconds after the power play expired to finish off the five minutes. He even had to hustle back to break up a possible breakaway when Forsberg stepped out of the box.
The shift also set an Islanders mark. Schaefer’s stretch topped the previous longest by a New York skater, Casey Cizikas at 4:50 on March 9, 2023.
He finished with 32 minutes and 16 seconds of ice time, over six minutes more than the next closest Islander. He came into the night averaging 26:13 a game.
Schaefer also picked up an assist, feeding Bo Horvat for the 3-0 goal early in the second period. That extended his point streak to five games and put him at 11 points in 12 games this season.
The 19-year-old is also the seventh defenseman in NHL history with at least 70 points as a teenager, with 25 goals and 45 assists. Last year he won the Calder Trophy with 59 points in all 82 games. We wrote about him passing Bobby Orr on the goal chart just a few days ago.
New York needed all of that effort after blowing a three-goal lead. Nashville tied it on a Ryan O’Reilly goal early in the third period, and Horvat won it in the shootout. Semyon Varlamov picked up his first NHL win since Nov. 14, 2024. Catch the moment the Islanders mobbed him:
The Islanders (6-4-2) wrap up their road trip Thursday in Minnesota before opening a three-game homestand against Edmonton on Saturday.
