The Islanders played a terrific six minutes on Saturday night.
Unfortunately for them, there were 54 minutes left after that.
And for all of Ilya Sorokin’s heroics in net, the Islanders’ netminder couldn’t overcome the team in front of him on Saturday night at UBS Arena, as the Predators defeated the Isles 4-3 on Roman Josi’s late winner to snap a nascent three-game winning streak.
The game was tied at three entering the final 20 minutes, but the writing was on the wall after the Predators had played up ice for the entire second period.
The Islanders were managing the puck poorly, struggling to generate a forecheck and struggling to clear out the area in front of Sorokin’s crease, essentially leaving the goaltender to fend for himself.
Given how well Sorokin has played lately, it’s perhaps unsurprising that playing in such a way didn’t immediately doom the Islanders.
Tony DeAngelo did not leave much to interpretation in the second period, though, when he told the team’s radio broadcast, “We’re horrible tonight. This is a really bad game for us.”
Ironically, DeAngelo appeared to break the tie just 1:10 into the third, but his shot that found the back of the net was immediately called off for goaltender interference.
The Islanders, believing that Anthony Duclair had contacted Juuse Saros outside of the crease, challenged the call but lost.
The Islanders’ play in the third was at least better than the second, insofar as they weren’t bleeding chances throughout.
But they remained sloppy with the puck and finally, it cost them.
With the teams skating at four-on-four, Ryan Pulock accidentally skated the puck out of the zone while trying to go across the blue line and was caught offside — somehow not the only time the Islanders committed that mindless error on Saturday.
Following the ensuing faceoff, Josi’s snipe beat Sorokin with 1:45 to go in the game, handing the Predators a 4-3 lead they would take to the bank.
At the start of the night, the Islanders had a juiced-up home crowd believing they’d march to an easy win.
Mat Barzal opened the scoring just 89 seconds into the game with a bizarre-looking goal that saw him hit Anthony Duclair’s rebound out of the air before the puck caromed off the post, off Juuse Saros and in.
The Islanders looked poised to blow out the Predators a few minutes later after Matthew Schaefer followed up a few dominant shifts with his 15th goal of the season, a laser from the left circle to make it 2-0.
A blowout turned out to be too much to ask for, as the Predators had climbed back into the game by the end of the first.
Filip Forsberg pulled Nashville within 2-1 with a power-play goal at the 9:59 mark and just under three minutes later, Matthew Wood made Schaefer pay for a turnover behind his own net with a one-timer to tie the game.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s goal off the rush at 7:21 of the second put the Islanders back in front, but it was only a brief reprieve.
Forsberg’s second goal of the night, a shot from the left post that sputtered over the line, was the only blemish on Sorokin’s record in an otherwise flawless second period.
The goaltender was the only thing keeping the Islanders in the game in the second, stopping 22 shots over 20 minutes including a terrific save on Michael Bunting in front.
The Islanders’ puck management in their own end left much to be desired, with Schaefer and Scott Mayfield both at fault on turnovers that led to goals.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s line was hemmed in for much of the evening while Barzal’s line — which had Max Shabanov in place of Jonathan Drouin, who came down ill and didn’t play — looked good to start and became undone as the game went on.
Notably, this was Bo Horvat’s best game since returning from injury, with No. 14 making a series of high-danger passes, though none were put away.
Ondrej Palat’s chemistry with Horvat and Heineman has developed with impressive speed.
There have been far too many nights, though, where the Islanders have leaned on Sorokin like they did Saturday.
That they have largely gotten away with it until now doesn’t make that any less concerning.
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