Islanders’ slump continues with loss to Lightning

This season won’t be like the last for the Islanders, when they finished on a nine-game point streak to earn a playoff spot. They have just eight games remaining now and have gone without a win in six matches.

Their fourth straight regulation loss extended their slide to 0-4-2 in a 4-1 defeat to the playoff-bound Lightning on Tuesday night to open a three-game homestand at UBS Arena. It left the Islanders five points behind the Canadiens — who scored in the last minute of regulation, then beat the Panthers 3-2 in overtime — for the Eastern Conference’s second wild-card spot.

But, for context, it should be noted the Islanders are only five points ahead of the Bruins, who sit last in the conference.

Last season, the Islanders needed an 8-0-1 run over their final nine games to finish third in the Metropolitan Division.

The Islanders (32-32-10) went 0-for-4 on the power play with Ilya Sorokin stopping 19 shots. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 27 saves for the Lightning (44-25-5).

This marked a rematch of the Islanders’ 5-3 road loss to the Lightning on Saturday in which they gave up the first four goals before notching three third-period goals.

The Islanders entered Tuesday’s third-period trailing 3-1 after failing to capitalize on their second-period opportunities to take a lead. That included failing to generate any kind of sustained attack on back-to-back power plays that included 13 seconds over overlapping five-on-three time.

Bo Horvat, after tying the game in the first period with a shorthanded goal, shot wide as he kept the puck on an odd-man rush early in the second period, then whiffed on a power-play one-timer from the right circle.

Jake Guentzel, who slipped behind defenseman Adam Pelech at the right post, deposited Nikita Kucherov’s pinpoint feed from the left corner as the Lightning went up 2-1 at 8:09 of the second period. Defenseman Victor Hedman then connected from the low slot after the Islanders gave him too much skating space at 10:41.

Nick Paul’s empty-netter at 16:29 of the third period erased any suspense, not that there was much with the Islanders generating just eight shots in the final frame.

The Lightning again opened the scoring against the Islanders as Oliver Bjorkstrand deflected defenseman Darren Raddysh’s shot from the right point at 8:46 of the first period. This time, though, the Islanders had a quicker response as Horvat — with his first goal in five games — kept the puck on a three-on-one shorthanded rush at 10:57 of the first period.

Notes & quotes: Copiague Harbor’s Ross Mitton, a right-shooting forward, 24, signed an amateur tryout offer with the Islanders’ AHL affiliate in Bridgeport as an undrafted free agent after compiling four goals and seven assists in 31 games for Maine. He spent the previous four seasons playing for Colgate . . . Cameron Berg of North Dakota, a fourth-round pick in 2021, also signed an ATO with Bridgeport. Berg, 23, a left-shooting forward, had 12 goals and 10 assists in 26 games as a senior . . . Defensemen Scott Mayfield, Mike Reilly and Scott Perunovich and forward Matt Martin remained healthy scratches.