SEATTLE — File this one under wins the Islanders let slip through their fingers.
After playing their best game of the season in Vancouver on Thursday, the Islanders came out on Saturday afternoon looking confident and playing crisp hockey.
But this time, it didn’t translate to a blowout win — or any other kind of win.
Instead, the Isles struggled to finish their chances, blew a third-period lead and left Seattle lamenting a 3-2 loss to the Kraken that sent them back to NHL-.500.
More concerning, the Islanders faded as the game went on, spanning from an excellent first period all the way to a lacking third, losing momentum as they went.
Though they gave up the first goal just as they had against the Canucks, this one felt just as much like a lost opportunity as any game in which the Islanders blew a big lead, and in the midst of a long road trip where they are trying to make up ground despite so many injuries, it hurts even more.
The Islanders came into the third with the game tied at one, having kept up the same heavy and possession-based hockey they’d played 120 miles north two nights prior.
But against a goalie in Joey Daccord who was leaving a few too many rebounds in the middle of the ice, they were failing to capitalize — and would pay for it.
Brock Nelson broke the tie with a shorthanded goal, getting up ice and sliding the puck past Daccord to give the Isles the lead, but it didn’t last long.
After Casey Cizikas temporarily left the game, appearing to take an elbow to the face and returning later in the period, Jared McCann tied it for the Kraken off the rush at 5:26 of the third.
But instead of responding with the same zeal they had after Seattle’s first goal, the Islanders started struggling to break the puck out, looking more like a team that would be lucky to survive and get to overtime than one dictating the run of play.
That they would not do as Jamie Oleksiak’s shot trickled through Ilya Sorokin’s pads with 3:13 to go to put the Kraken up 3-2.
Patrick Roy challenged for goaltender interference, with Brandon Tanev in the blue paint, but the Islanders lost the challenge — and took a delay of game penalty in doing so.
Winnable as this one was, that sequence proved crushing.
Seattle got on the board first when Tanev’s centering feed banked off the stick of Yanni Gourde and in at the 8:10 mark.
But Pierre Engvall — whose resurgence has been more defined than perhaps any other Islander — quickly pulled the Isles back into a 1-1 game by getting to Ryan Pulock’s rebound just over five minutes later.
That was an early example of what became a trend in this game, with the Islanders owning the middle of the ice in the offensive zone and thus generating scoring chances with some ease.
For all that play below the hashes, though, the Islanders reverted back to an early-season trend in which all the underlying numbers looked good but the top line — the scoreboard — didn’t reflect it.
That was costly then and it is costly now, as a five-game points streak came to an end and the Islanders suffered their first regulation loss since Nov. 3 at the Rangers.
The Islanders can and should like how they played for much of the afternoon.
But that is not enough when they should be taking two more points with them to Calgary.
