This was exactly the sort of game the Islanders should not lose, in exactly the manner they should not lose it.

They entered the third period with a lead then quickly doubled it, having forced the Red Wings into the same kind of low-event and low-danger hockey that so frustrated the Blue Jackets two days prior in Columbus.

Holding the lead, though, proved too much to ask.

The Islanders instead gave that up, along with two points as the Red Wings beat them 4-3 in overtime at UBS Arena on Monday after Lucas Raymond’s game-winner.

The collapse came quickly. Daniel Sprong cut a 2-0 lead in half 7:55 into the third, dancing around Sebastian Aho before beating Ilya Sorokin.

Less than two minutes later, Jake Walman tied it with a goal from the left circle, prompting Lane Lambert to use his timeout.

Whatever he said, though, didn’t have much effect.

Barely two minutes after Detroit tied the game, the Red Wings took the lead as the Islanders left J.T. Compher unguarded at the left post, making the go-ahead goal a formality.

Bo Horvat seemed to break the momentum back in the Islanders’ favor by tying the game at 3-3 on the power play with 4:11 to go.

That ended up being enough to salvage a point. But for the second time this season, the Islanders lost at home in overtime and this game never should have gotten that far to begin with.

After nearly 40 scoreless minutes with the Red Wings threatening on the power play, Horvat stripped the puck from Alex DeBrincat to spring Casey Cizikas on a breakaway.

Cizikas promptly dragged to his backhand and poked it through Ville Husso’s five-hole, giving the Islanders a 1-0 lead 18:39 into the game.

A lead that took 38:39 to come to fruition, though, took just 2:26 to double. Noah Dobson’s shot from the right point to make it 2-0 just over a minute into the third.

Until Cizikas scored, it had been a fairly quiet first two periods.

Neither goaltender was asked to do much heavy lifting, though Sorokin did turn in an excellent glove save to stone Sprong just before Simon Holmstrom’s slashing call led to Cizikas’ goal.

Cal Clutterbuck earned a 10-minute misconduct penalty from the bench 14:02 into the second for what seemed to be too much chirping at the referees, making the zebras Public Enemy No. 1 at UBS Arena.

That only built further as the Islanders struck back at another perceived injustice — Holmstrom breaking Shayne Gostisbehere’s stick in what was, in truth, an obvious slash — by scoring at four-on-five.

Over the first couple weeks of the season, even though the results were fine, the eye test left some room for concern.

The Islanders were not just leaning on their goaltending, they were making things nearly impossible for Sorokin and Semyon Varlamov.

This, however, was largely the opposite — a game in which the eye test (at least for 40 minutes) looked good but proved to be less than enough.

The Islanders have yet to prove they can maintain the sort of shutdown defense necessary to win consistently, even with the intrinsic advantage they have in nets.

Detroit, which came into UBS Arena on a three-game losing streak, is the sort of team the Islanders need to beat — particularly at home — since the Red Wings figure to be a threat in the wild-card race down the line.

The Islanders should be right there as well, but if they harbor higher ambitions, more is necessary.

Eight games is not much time to form a judgment and things can change easily.

But reality for the 4-2-2 Islanders right now is they haven’t shown enough to be considered a threat beyond the wild-card race as yet.