VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Lane Lambert said before Wednesday’s game that his team has played good hockey, save for small pockets in which they have fallen apart.
The problem with that is it is a lot like saying it won’t rain, unless it does. And later in the evening, after the Islanders opened up a lead on the Canucks, the skies opened up.
In what has become the story of the season so far, the Islanders did not allow a five-on-five goal, but blew a lead and lost to Vancouver, 4-3 in overtime. That extended their losing streak to six games, with Quinn Hughes’s game-winner spoiling Bo Horvat’s homecoming.
“[Penalties] seem to be killing us every night,” Horvat said. “We’re just not getting those kills at the right time. It seems to be costing us every mistake we make. So I thought our five-on-five game was good, power play was good. It’s just a matter of putting it all together right now.”
Once again, the collapse came in the third period after the Islanders entered the last 20 minutes hanging onto a 3-2 lead.
During a delayed penalty for a Noah Dobson slashing, Jean-Gabriel Pageau was called for tripping to set up a Vancouver five-on-three for two minutes. The Islanders nearly killed it off, but with just 15 seconds to go, Filip Hronek’s one-timer tied the game at three.
And the Islanders, who have scored just once in the third period since the calendar flipped to November, could not snap their streak with Thatcher Demko in the opposing net.
The Islanders got the loser point, extending the game to overtime after they spent much of the back end of the third threatening Demko to no avail. But for the fourth time this season, they fell short in the extra period — and for the second of those times, they lost a game despite Ilya Sorokin pitching a shutout at five-on-five.
Hughes got behind the defense in overtime and easily finished the chance past Sorokin.
“Missed assignments. That’s it,” Lambert said. “There’s nothing else you can say. It’s three-on-three, it’s man-on-man. If you don’t get your assignment, [it] ends up in the back of your net.”
That capitulation was set up by the faltering penalty kill in the second period, as the Islanders allowed power play goals to J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser — and counted themselves lucky that Andrei Kuzmenko fanned on a shot that would have made it three after Anders Lee took the Islanders’ third penalty of the period.
Then came the consecutive penalties in the third, which doomed the Islanders’ chances of a regulation win.
“You can’t take two penalties on the same play,” Lambert said. “I’m sorry, it just can’t happen. Too good of a power play to do that.”
A pair of early power play goals had gotten the Islanders out front, with Pierre Engvall and Brock Nelson taking advantage of consecutive penalties by Ian Cole to send the teams into the first intermission tied at one.
Horvat marked his return to Vancouver with a goal in the second period, finishing a one-timer from Mat Barzal to put the Islanders ahead 3-1 and looking nothing short of delighted in doing so.
The emotion in the dressing room by the end of the game, though, was frustration.
“Obviously we’re not getting the results we want right now,” Dobson said. “We’re just gonna focus on doing some good things out there. Just gotta find ways to play well together, get off the schneid here.”
The Islanders, losers of seven of their last eight, have publicly maintained faith. But at two games under .500, it is vital that they find some momentum before they fly back home on Sunday because right now, they are a team whose resilience has been replaced by rolling over.
Every third period they seem to be waiting for the other shoe to drop. The penalty kill has lost its way. Mistakes seem to multiply.
Two seasons ago, an 11-game losing streak derailed the season by early December. Things are not at that level of disaster yet.
But the Islanders need to find a way to stop the sky from falling.