Matthew Schaefer’s clutch late goal helps Islanders to stunning comeback win over Blue Jackets

This is what the Islanders’ future looks like.

Two goals from Matthew Schaefer, the second of which tied the game with 1:07 to go, set the table for Simon Holmstrom’s game-winner just 29 seconds later as the Islanders pulled out a stunning 3-2 comeback victory over the Blue Jackets on Sunday night to take two points in regulation.

“I thought we battled so hard and I thought that was our game, all over the ice,” Schaefer said in a contented postgame dressing room. “There’s gonna be bad bounces, mistakes, penalties, but we fought really hard. We fought back and we got that one.”

This looked like a hockey game you’ve seen before, a hockey game the Islanders have played before, one in which the Islanders dominate, convert too few of their chances and give two points away.

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When Denton Mateychuk broke a 1-1 tie with 7:50 to go in regulation, putting the Blue Jackets ahead, it felt like an inevitability — hanging in the air since the Isles had outshot Columbus 18-3 in the first period while scoring just once — had just come to pass.

These Islanders, though, don’t know how to be jaded. They have youthful optimism in droves: the 18-year-old Schaefer, the 21-year-old Cal Ritchie, the 24-year-old Holmstrom and a lineup that tilted the ice all night at UBS in putting together a complete two-way effort that only paid off after 58:53 of knocking on the door.

That was when, skating at six-on-five with Anders Lee creating havoc in front of the net, Schaefer’s shot went off Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski’s stick and beat Elvis Merzlikins to tie the game at two.

Less than 30 seconds later, with Lee in front again, Holmstrom banged in the captain’s rebound off a scramble in the crease to set the UBS crowd alight, give the Islanders two points in regulation and send the Blue Jackets home in utter disbelief.

“It means a lot,” Holmstrom said. “I think it shows what type of group this is. It’s a tight group. We never quit. We keep going until the whistle blows.”

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The composition of the Islanders’ lineup gave the win some extra symbolism.

For the first time since Feb. 1, the night Mat Barzal hurt his kneecap, he started on the top line alongside Bo Horvat, allowing Cal Ritchie to start in his natural position at center on the second line between Jonathan Drouin and Kyle Palmieri.

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The only disruption to the Islanders’ momentum over the course of the night came in the four penalties they took, all of which were killed off to make it a second straight perfect night on the PK. Otherwise, their biggest issue was Merzlikins, who made 36 saves, with Schaefer’s power-play goal 5:53 into the match standing as his only blemish until late in the night.

That lineup — if Ritchie can handle the matchups as he did Sunday, when his line did not allow a single shot on net, per Natural Stat Trick — is one that might hold the highest ceiling for the Islanders, and one that puts Ritchie in the spotlight alongside Schaefer, who has owned it all season.

And while Ritchie has not yet gotten on the scoresheet, he has looked every bit like he belongs through two games, make no mistake.

“Obviously Schaef, the kid looks like he’s been in the league for 10 years,” Ryan Pulock, whose feed down low to Lee set up the game-winner, told The Post. “Ritch, coming in, great poise, smart. That’s how you become good. And I think we got a lot of good pieces here.

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“Some older guys, some in their prime and then you add [these] young guys. It’s gonna be a fun year.

“I think you’re gonna learn as we go and there’s gonna be some ups and downs, but our main goal as a group in here is to make the playoffs. That was the goal at the start. ’Cause once you get there, you never know. Obviously, it’s a long way to go. I think when you see this young talent, it really brings a spark to the group.”