Islanders blow late lead, lose overtime crusher to Predators with season on brink

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — They’re not mathematically eliminated, not quite yet, but the Islanders season is at the lip of the drain.

Eight points back of the Canadiens with just five games left, and it looked on Tuesday night like the Islanders were painfully aware that their season is all but officially cooked.

How else to explain this defense-optional, 7-6 overtime defeat to the Predators that landed at the cross-section between preseason and shinny, with a collapse in the final two minutes of regulation before Fedor Svechkov put the Islanders out of their misery in overtime?

To make matters worse, the Islanders played the third period and overtime without Ilya Sorokin, who Patrick Roy said after the game was pulled as a precautionary measure after suffering an upper-body injury.

The Islanders playoff chances were none too good at the start of the night, of course, but playing down to the level of a team that’s long been eliminated and losing a game in which they held leads of 1-0, 3-2, 4-3 and 6-4 only makes the looming end to their season all the more welcome.

“I don’t think we played well defensively at all,” Adam Pelech told The Post. “They had a lot of chances. They have a lot of talent up front and if you give these guys a lot of time and space, they’re gonna create chances. And I don’t think we did a good job of defending tonight.”

Yes it was close and no that was not much credit to the Islanders, whose only positive came with Simon Holmstrom’s four-point evening that saw the Swede hit 20 goals for the first time.

Despite the high-scoring nature of the game, the third period stayed quiet until the 15:21 mark, at which point things flew right off the handle.

3

First, Kyle Palmieri broke a 4-4 tie, roofing a backhand from the left-side dot and the game looked essentially over a few minutes later when the Islanders followed Ryan Pulock’s hooking penalty by scoring shorthanded, Holmstrom feeding Scott Mayfield for his fourth point of the night.

Bo Horvat’s penalty with the teams skating four-on-four at the 17:01 mark, got the ball rolling on the collapse.

Steven Stamkos scored on the power play — a five-on-three with Justus Annunen out of his net — to pull back within one.

3

Michael Bunting then tied the game at six with the net empty and 40 seconds to go in regulation, tipping in a shot from Stamkos.

“It’s on me taking that penalty and letting them find a way to get back into it,” Horvat said. “I take responsibility for that one.”

Svechkov netted the winner in the extra period after Holmstrom hit the bar on a chance for the hat trick, strolling into the slot and beating Hogberg.

---

• CHECK OUT THE ISLANDERS STATS

---

While the collapse over the final 2:07 will get top billing, the defensive performance was terrible all night long, with turnovers galore and a lack of physicality.

For the first two periods, the teams traded four goals apiece, neither getting any kind of foothold, though Holmstrom’s pair did stick out, in particular the backhand feed from a cutting Jean-Gabriel Pageau he finished at 4:36 of the second.

The Islanders, however, gave back that lead 3-2 lead in short order, as well as the 4-3 lead they had after Max Tsyplakov scored at the 12:09 mark, with Michael McCarron putting the puck through Sorokin from just a few feet away barely a minute later.

3

McCarron also fell awkwardly on the goalie, possibly causing the injury that caused him to miss the last 21:56 of the game.

“We weren’t crisp all night, we weren’t at our best,” Horvat said. “But at the end of the day, we need to find a way to get those wins. We were up two with three minutes let. Gotta find a way to get that done.”

The Rangers await on Thursday in a match that now looks like a battle for first runner up in the Eastern playoff race.

For a New York hockey season that’s been a disaster for both teams, call it fitting.

“There’s no excuse for that, there’s no excuse when we’re trying to fight for a playoff spot and keep ourselves in it,” Horvat said.

Add it to the pile of inexcusable losses this season.

In fact, put it right on top.