Islanders let another one get away, fall to Red Wings on two third-period goals

DETROIT — The Islanders stressed the need to complete their five-game road trip, the longest of the season, on a good note. Returning home with points in four of the five games was the stated goal.

Left unsaid was the need to protect a lead if they got one.

They couldn’t for a third straight time in the third period, so that became the overriding theme of this disappointing 1-2-2 trip that concluded with a brutal 2-1 loss to the Red Wings on Thursday night at Little Caesars Arena. Somehow, this one felt just the same as their previous two games, yet worse.

“I mean, it feels just as [expletive] as the last time, and somehow, I guess, [expletive] at the same time,” a visibly frustrated Kyle Palmieri said.

“It’s just not good enough,” defenseman Noah Dobson said. “We’ve got to find a way to close it out. We definitely can’t afford to not even get a point out of it.”

It marked the seventh time this season the Islanders (7-8-5), now a quarter of the way through their 82-game schedule, could not hold a third-period lead.

“I don’t know what to say about the last five minutes,” said Ilya Sorokin, who made 29 saves. “They are big goals. It’s very disappointing. We should be better focused the last five minutes and we should be working on this aspect.”

Nerves? Lack of confidence? The inability to expand a one-goal lead? All of that plays into the Islanders’ third-period collapses, including Saturday’s 3-2 loss in Seattle and Tuesday’s 2-1 shootout defeat in Calgary.

This time Jonatan Berggren tied it at 15:14 of the third period on a two-on-one rush after defenseman Alexander Romanov lost his stick.

“It was a bad break,” Dobson said. “He’s trying to chase a guy but he doesn’t really have a stick so it’s a two-on-one. Yeah, that’s unfortunate.”

Lucas Raymond then won it with 51.1 seconds remaining.

“I don’t see the same thing every time, that’s for sure,” coach Patrick Roy said. “It’s different every night. Calgary, they scored on their power play. Tonight it was a broken stick. It seems like there’s always something different every night. We had our chances to score a goal that would hurt them and we just didn’t do it. Scoring a goal could change the rhythm of the game.

“We’ve got to find a way to be loose. We have our chances. We just have to find a way to make them relax and hit the back of the net and get some confidence in ourselves. I thought they were [confident], but when the puck doesn’t go in, it could play with your mind a little bit.”

After Christian Fischer tripped defenseman Scott Mayfield at 3:41 of the third period, the Islanders couldn’t capitalize on their lone power-play opportunity, managing two shots on Alex Lyon (22 saves).

The Red Wings (8-9-2) entered the game with the second-ranked power play in the NHL at 16-for-50 but had scored only 22 goals five-on-five before Thursday. But the Islanders killed off all three Red Wings chances and allowed a total of only six man-advantage shots.

The Red Wings, who will visit the Islanders on Monday, won the first meeting between the teams, 1-0, at UBS Arena on Oct. 22 despite taking only 11 shots on Sorokin that night.

They matched that total Thursday at 18:09 of the first period on Raymond’s backhander.

The Islanders took a 1-0 lead at 5:51 of the first period as Simon Holmstrom got to the crease to deflect Mayfield’s shot from the blue line.

Notes & quotes: Pierre Engvall had his career-high three-game goal streak snapped . . . Sorokin was denied his 100th NHL regular-season win for a fourth time . . . Romanov played in his 300th NHL regular-season game . . . Defenseman Dennis Cholowski played his first game against the Red Wings, who selected him 20th overall in 2016 . . . Defenseman Grant Hutton and forward Hudson Fasching remained healthy scratches.

By Andrew Gross

andrew.gross@newsday.comAGrossNewsday

Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.