Islanders unable to overcome costly penalties in OT loss to Devils

Just a couple of nights after the Islanders put in a defensive effort to make Ilya Sorokin’s brilliance obsolete, they asked their goaltender to hold up the sky.

And Sorokin, despite stopping every shot he faced at five-on-five, including a series of dazzling saves, could not play the role of Atlas.

The Islanders, in turn, suffered their first loss of the season, 5-4, to the Devils on Friday night on Jack Hughes’ overtime winner.

The game was a penalty-stricken affair in which the Islanders stole a point, but could not steal a victory.

“I just feel sorry for [Sorokin],” defenseman Alexander Romanov told The Post, “because he played really great. He played really good.”

After 40 minutes of hockey resulted in a massively entertaining 3-3 draw, the sixth Islanders penalty of the night delivered the Devils’ fourth power-play goal, with Hughes finishing Ondrej Palat’s feed to the crease 4:30 into the third.

That looked like it would be all she wrote after the Islanders wasted a late power play of their own with just one shot on net.

But with 1:11 to go in regulation and Sorokin out of his net, Bo Horvat buried a rebound to tie the score at 4-4 and breathe life into UBS Arena.

Come overtime, however, the momentum was lost, as Hughes buried a wrister to seal the Devils’ win with 2:41 to go in the extra period.

Told that the penalty kill had given up not two, not three, but four goals, Romanov’s eyes bugged out.

“Four?” he said. “Four goals on the PK?”

Yes, indeed — enough to earn just a point despite a 33-save effort from Sorokin, and to deliver a hard lesson to the Islanders.

Against a team that owns perhaps the greatest speed in the NHL, the Islanders couldn’t keep up. The Devils were so fast as to make entering the offensive zone look like a downhill run.

In what limited acquisitions he’s made recently, general manager Lou Lamoriello has tried to make the Islanders faster — it’s no coincidence that the first words out of everyone’s mouth regarding Pierre Engvall and Julien Gauthier (who did not play) was “speed” — but here was proof positive the home club has a ways to go.

Too often, that resulted in mindless penalties, including two each for Casey Cizikas and Adam Pelech. In a game in which the Islanders had excellent goaltending and outscored their opposition easily at five-on-five, they did not have enough.

“It’s extremely disappointing,” coach Lane Lambert said. “They hit us with a couple plays on the power play. We had a couple missed assignments, so to speak. And that’s all it takes is just that one split second.”

Five of the nine goals came within a stretch of 7:10 spanning the first and second periods — with Dougie Hamilton, Tyler Toffoli and Luke Hughes scoring on power plays for the Devils while Brock Nelson and Horvat answered at even strength for the Islanders. That, in concert with Nelson’s opener 12:35 into the night, gave the Islanders some belief that they could hang with New Jersey, particularly given the level at which Sorokin was playing.

The netminder delivered three unbelievable stops early in the game.

The first was an early candidate for save of the year, when he stopped Hughes at 15:27 from point-blank range on his backhand with a glove save.

That prompted Hughes to bang his stick against the glass in frustration.

Another superb save came barely a minute later when Sorokin slid left to get a pad on Jesper Bratt’s one-timer. And for good measure, Sorokin added a jaw-dropping pad save on Nate Bastian in the second period.

Asked about the save against Hughes, however, Sorokin recalled a different moment.

“I just remember Hughes, huge goal in overtime,” he said. “In overtime, he took a shot. Winning goal.”