SEATTLE — File this to back up the victory that slipped through the Islanders' fingers.
After playing their best game of the season in Vancouver on Thursday, the Islanders played confident, snappy hockey on Saturday afternoon.
But this time it didn't lead to a big win or any other kind of victory.
Instead, the Isles struggled to capitalize on opportunities, lost the lead in the third period, lost 3-2 to the Kraken, and left Seattle lamenting falling back to NHL-.500.
More worrisome, the Islanders lost momentum as the game progressed, going from a strong first period to a sluggish third period.
As against the Canucks, they allowed a first run, but this game felt just as much of a missed opportunity as any other game where the Islanders blew a huge lead, and they're in the middle of a long road to challenge. Ta. Despite all the injuries, it hurts even more to recover.
The Islanders continued to play the same heavy, possession-based hockey they played 190 Miles North two nights ago, with the game tied at 1 for third place.
But they couldn't capitalize on it against goaltender Joey Daccord, who left too many rebounds in the middle of the ice, and they would pay the price.
Brock Nelson broke the deadlock with a short-handed goal, coming off the ice and sliding the puck past Daccord to give the Isles the lead, but it didn't last long.
After Casey Cizikas briefly left the game with what appeared to be an elbow to the face, but returned late in the period, Jared McCann scored the game-tying shot for the Kraken off a rush at 5:26 of the third inning.
But instead of responding with the same enthusiasm after Seattle's first goal, the Islanders began to struggle to break up the puck, and rather than being a game-changing team, they were lucky to survive and force overtime. It looked like a team.
They didn't do that when Jamie Oleksiak's shot grazed Ilya Sorokin's pads with 3:13 left, giving the Kraken a 3-2 lead.
Patrick Roy, along with Brandon Tanev in blue paint, contested goaltender interference, but the Islanders lost the appeal and received a delay-of-game penalty.
This match could have been won, but the sequence turned out to be devastating.
Seattle took the lead at 8:10 when Tanev's centering feed hit Yanni Gould's stick.
But Pierre Envall, whose comeback was perhaps more obvious than any other Islander, quickly pulled the Islanders back into the game at 1-1 with a rebound from Ryan Purok just over five minutes later.
This was an early example of a trend in this game, with the Islanders dominating the middle of the ice in the offensive zone and creating scoring opportunities with some ease.
But despite playing below the hash, the Islanders reverted to earlier-season trends where all the underlying numbers looked good but the top line, or scoreboard, didn't reflect it.
This was expensive then and it is expensive now. The five-game winning streak ended, and the Islanders suffered their first regulation loss since November 3 against the Rangers.
The Islanders can and should like the way they played for most of the afternoon.
But that's not enough when they have to take two more points to Calgary.
