The Islanders nearly finished off their homestand in perfect fashion.
But the Bruins stopped their winning streak at four, coming back four different times to beat the Islanders 5-4 in a shootout following David Pastrnak’s game-winner in the fourth round.
By no means does that negate what has been an immensely successful six-game homestand, in which the Islanders took 10 of a possible 12 points.
But it does leave a bit of a sour taste given that the Islanders held commanding leads in both games they lost — 4-1 against San Jose and 2-0 against Boston.
And like the game against the Sharks, the Islanders had every chance to win on Friday.
But in a third period that started with the game tied at two, in which the Islanders would lead 3-2 and 4-3, they could not put the game away.
The Islanders showed the same fight back they had throughout the past couple weeks when Bo Horvat scored on the power play just 5:06 into the third to take the lead right back.
And it looked like the breaks were going their way when Brad Marchand’s apparent game-tying goal was called back, with the referees saying he directed the puck with his hands.
But the same penalty kill that allowed the Bruins to tie the game at two quickly allowed them to tie it at three, with James van Riemsdyk directing Kevin Shattenkirk’s initial shot past Ilya Sorokin to re-tie the game.
The match seesawed back to the Islanders when Brock Nelson scored on a subsequent power play.
But for the fourth time on the night, the Islanders failed to hold a lead with Mason Lohrei banking a shot in to tie the game back at four at the 16:51 mark.
And in overtime, the Islanders’ failures to hang onto the game finally cost them as they failed to convert a four-on-three power play.
They couldn’t make good on Sorokin’s point-blank save of Pastrnak with 26 seconds to go in overtime either, as they lost the subsequent skills competition.
The Islanders seemed to have the better of this one on paper going into the third.
Despite a ferocious Boston forecheck, they started finding ways to break the puck up the ice and broke through with Alexander Romanov’s goal from an offensive zone faceoff 1:42 into the second.
Simon Holmstrom doubled the lead at the 13:26 mark, finishing a breakaway from Casey Cizikas after Shatternkirk turned the puck over in the offensive zone, and it looked like Holmstrom would score again to make it 3-0 on a shorthanded break after Julien Gauthier was sent off for tripping just a few seconds later.
Linus Ullmark, however, came up with a diving stop on Holmstrom’s rebound chance — which the Bruins quickly capitalized on as Morgan Geekie cut the lead in half with a slot one-timer before the power play was over.
And when the Islanders were called for too many men on the ice just 1:50 later, Pastrnak made them pay with a left-circle one-timer after Cizikas’ clearing attempt failed.
The chance to make it 3-0 — and Ullmark’s subsequent denial — was the moment the game flipped in the wrong direction for the Islanders.
The Bruins are amongst the best teams in the league for a reason.
They can jump on moments like that.
It’s not yet clear whether the Islanders are in that group, though there were times throughout this homestand where they certainly looked it.
The back half of this game, though, served as a bit of a crash back to reality.