DETROIT — Another game, another third-period lead, another loss.
At this point, what else can you expect from the Islanders, who just magicked what should have been a terrific road trip into three losses on the bounce?
Thursday’s 2-1 loss to the Red Wings, courtesy of Lucas Raymond’s winner with under a minute left, felt like watching a rerun of Tuesday’s loss against the Flames.
In both, the Islanders played a low-event game, ceded possession of the puck for most of the night, had a 1-0 lead and looked in control for two periods before letting go of the rope in the third.
Including the loss to the Kraken, when the Isles had a third-period lead for mere seconds before allowing Seattle to tie it up and eventually win on a controversial call, they have let three straight wins out of their grasp to finish their longest road trip of the season.
That is a recipe for a quiet plane ride home.
What has been one of the Islanders’ fatal flaws for most of the season, their penalty kill, was excellent for the first two periods Thursday.
They killed three chances at four-on-five against a Red Wings team that came in ranking second in the league on the power play, with Ilya Sorokin sharp in net and the PK unit doing a good job in front of him.
Still, for the second consecutive game, they couldn’t build on a 1-0 lead after Simon Holmstrom scored 5:51 into the night by tipping in Scott Mayfield’s shot from the top of the zone.
So into the third period it went, with the same old vibe everyone has gotten used to over the past 13 months.
The Islanders, after having invited pressure in the same situation against Calgary to their detriment, did so again against the Red Wings.
It looked as though Sorokin’s heroics might be enough to bail them out until the 15:14 mark of the third, when Jonatan Berggren scored off a breakaway to tie the game at one.
Unlike in Calgary, they wouldn’t even make it to overtime.
Raymond picked up a puck after the Red Wings won a battle on the wall and lashed it into the net with 51 seconds left in regulation, handing Detroit a 2-1 lead that would become a win in short order.
Yet again, in the last period, the Islanders could not clamp down, could not build on their lead and paid a heavy price.
The Islanders, who still are missing four regulars from their lineup, proved over the past 12 days in the Northwest and Detroit that they are still capable of winning games without some of their best players.
What they did not do was capitalize on that capability.
A 5-2 scoring outburst in Vancouver — the lone game of the trip in which the Isles built on a lead — was their only win of the five-game trip, despite having a chance to win all five.
That is just not good enough, even for a team playing hurt, even with a tough schedule, even on a long road trip.
In the mushy Eastern Conference, full of mediocre teams that will all be competing for the last playoff spot, it won’t put much of a dent in their playoff chances.
But the Islanders could have put themselves well atop that pile over the past couple of weeks and perhaps mounted a run at the Rangers in the standings.
Instead, they are right back into the mediocre muck.
