Schaefer stars as the Islanders score 2 late goals to edge Blue Jackets 3-2

NEW YORK (AP) — Rookie Matthew Schaefer and Simon Holmstrom scored 29 seconds apart late in the third period, helping the New York Islanders rally for a 3-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday.

David Rittich made 20 saves in New York's second straight win.

Miles Wood and defenseman Denton Mateychuk scored for Columbus, which beat St. Louis 3-2 on Saturday for its fourth consecutive win. Elvis Merzlikins made 36 saves.

Schaefer tied it at 2 with his second goal of the game with 1:07 to go. Holmstrom tapped a loose puck past Merzlikins with 38 seconds left for his fourth of the season.

Merzlikins slammed his stick over the crossbar in frustration after Holmstrom's goal.

Mateychuk backhanded the puck past Rittich at 12:10 of the third for his third goal, lifting the Blue Jackets to a 2-1 lead. Kirill Marchenko and Sean Monahan assisted.

Schaefer opened the scoring 5:53 into the first, rifling a shot past Merzlikins on the power play. The 18-year-old Schaefer has 10 points in 12 games since the Islanders made him the first overall pick in this year's NHL draft.

Bo Horvat and Kyle Palmieri assisted. Horvat leads the Islanders with 13 points, including seven goals.

Columbus tied it at 1 on Wood's fourth goal at 15:19 of the second.

The Islanders were coming off 3-1 win at Washington on Friday night, finishing a 1-2-1 road trip.

Columbus has won six of eight since a 1-3-0 start.

Islanders: Host the Boston Bruins on Tuesday.

Blue Jackets: Visit the Calgary Flames on Wednesday to continue five-game trip.

AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL

Columbus Blue Jackets center Charlie Coyle (3) skates to the bench as New York Islanders Anders Lee (27) and Jean-Gabriel Pageau, celebrate after a goal by Simon Holmstrom (10) during the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Columbus Blue Jackets, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)

Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Denton Mateychuk (5) celebrates with Zach Werenski (8) and Sean Monahan (23), after scoring a goal against the New York Islanders during the third period of an NHL hockey game, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)

New York Islanders defensemen Alexander Romanov (28) and Matthew Schaefer (48) battle Columbus Blue Jackets left wing Miles Wood (11) for the puck during the third period of an NHL hockey game, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)

New York Islanders defenseman Alexander Romanov (28) reacts after being called for a hooking penalty against Columbus Blue Jackets left wing Miles Wood (11) during the third period of an NHL hockey game Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)

New York Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer (48) shoots the puck against Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Damon Severson (78) during the second period of an NHL hockey game, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)

New York Islanders center Kyle MacLean (32) battles Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski (8) for the puck during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)

Columbus Blue Jackets right wing Kirill Marchenko (86) plays the puck against New York Islanders defenseman Ryan Pulock (6) during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)

Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Damon Severson (78) plays the puck against New York Islanders center Calum Ritchie (64) during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)

New York Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer (48) reacts after scoring against the Columbus Blue Jackets during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Myanmar insisted Friday that its deadly military campaign against the Rohingya ethnic minority was a legitimate counter-terrorism operation and did not amount to genocide, as it defended itself at the top United Nations court against an allegation of breaching the genocide convention.

Myanmar launched the campaign in Rakhine state in 2017 after an attack by a Rohingya insurgent group. Security forces were accused of mass rapes, killings and torching thousands of homes as more than 700,000 Rohingya fled into neighboring Bangladesh.

“Myanmar was not obliged to remain idle and allow terrorists to have free reign of northern Rakhine state,” the country’s representative Ko Ko Hlaing told black-robed judges at the International Court of Justice.

African nation Gambia brought a case at the court in 2019 alleging that Myanmar's military actions amount to a breach of the Genocide Convention that was drawn up in the aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust.

Some 1.2 million members of the Rohingya minority are still languishing in chaotic, overcrowded camps in Bangladesh, where armed groups recruit children and girls as young as 12 are forced into prostitution. The sudden and severe foreign aid cuts imposed last year by U.S. President Donald Trump shuttered thousands of the camps’ schools and have caused children to starve to death.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar has long considered the Rohingya Muslim minority to be “Bengalis” from Bangladesh even though their families have lived in the country for generations. Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982.

As hearings opened Monday, Gambian Justice Minister Dawda Jallow said his nation filed the case after the Rohingya “endured decades of appalling persecution, and years of dehumanizing propaganda. This culminated in the savage, genocidal ‘clearance operations’ of 2016 and 2017, which were followed by continued genocidal policies meant to erase their existence in Myanmar.”

Hlaing disputed the evidence Gambia cited in its case, including the findings of an international fact-finding mission set up by the U.N.'s Human Rights Council.

“Myanmar’s position is that the Gambia has failed to meet its burden of proof," he said. "This case will be decided on the basis of proven facts, not unsubstantiated allegations. Emotional anguish and blurry factual pictures are not a substitute for rigorous presentation of facts.”

Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi represented her country at jurisdiction hearings in the case in 2019, denying that Myanmar armed forces committed genocide and instead casting the mass exodus of Rohingya people from the country she led as an unfortunate result of a battle with insurgents.

The pro-democracy icon is now in prison after being convicted of what her supporters call trumped-up charges after a military takeover of power.

Myanmar contested the court’s jurisdiction, saying Gambia was not directly involved in the conflict and therefore could not initiate a case. Both countries are signatories to the genocide convention, and in 2022, judges rejected the argument, allowing the case to move forward.

Gambia rejects Myanmar's claims that it was combating terrorism, with Jallow telling judges on Monday that “genocidal intent is the only reasonable inference that can be drawn from Myanmar’s pattern of conduct.”

In late 2024, prosecutors at another Hague-based tribunal, the International Criminal Court, requested an arrest warrant for the head of Myanmar’s military regime for crimes committed against the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority. Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who seized power from Suu Kyi in 2021, is accused of crimes against humanity for the persecution of the Rohingya. The request is still pending.

FILE - In this Sept. 7, 2017, file photo, smoke rises from a burned house in Gawdu Zara village, northern Rakhine state, where the vast majority of the country's 1.1 million Rohingya lived, Myanmar. (AP Photo, File)