Another poor third period dooms Islanders in home loss to Wild

 The Islanders did not blow a multi-goal lead in this one, just a one-goal edge. But, still, their third-period woes continued.

 “There’s some things that we can take from that where I thought we did better than we’ve doing,” defenseman Ryan Pulock said. “We’ve got to find a way to turn the tide there. You can’t be giving up that many in the third, as of late. Whatever it is, we’ve got to find a way to fix it.”

 The Wild broke a deadlock with two third-period goals within 42 seconds and went on to a 4-2 win on Tuesday night at UBS Arena, snapping the Islanders’ point streak at five games.

 But now the Islanders (5-3-3) are in a 1-1-2 skid and have been outscored 7-2 in the third period of those three defeats. That includes blowing a three-goal lead — a two-goal lead in the third period — in Saturday’s 4-3 overtime loss to the visiting Hurricanes and a two-goal lead early in the third period of a 4-3 overtime loss to the visiting Red Wings on Oct. 30.

 Allowing the Wild three third-period power plays, one which led to a goal, did not help.

 “Not ideal to take three in the third,” said defenseman Noah Dobson, who tied the game at 1-1 with a blast from the right circle at 11:00 of the first period. “We had lots of power plays, too.”

 But the Islanders could only go 1-for-5 — Oliver Wahlstrom’s first goal of the season from the left circle past Marc-Andre Fleury (26 saves) gave them a 2-1 lead at 8:34 of the second period — against the NHL’s worst penalty kill. Wahlstrom was in the lineup with top-line center Bo Horvat (lower body) unavailable.

 “It was costly penalties,” coach Lane Lambert said. “Untimely penalties. We had an undisciplined penalty, the third one (defenseman Scott Mayfield’s illegal check to the head of Brandon Duhaime at 15:20). We’ve had a few high-sticking penalties lately. We’ve got to be better with that. We continue a parade to the penalty box and we give them momentum.”

 Kirill Kaprizov’s power-play one-timer from the right circle over the glove of Semyon Varlamov (27 saves) put the Wild ahead 3-2 at 6:50 of the third period. Joel Eriksson-Ek, left wide open to Varlamov’s right after Pierre Engvall turned the puck over, knocked in Pat Maroon’s feed for a 4-2 lead at 7:32.

 “They score a power-play goal,” Lambert said. “And then we make an individual mistake trying to beat two guys on our own instead of moving the puck and it ends up in the back of our net. As a result, the first 40 minutes have gone for naught because they were pretty good.”

 Varlamov entered the match with a shutout streak of 137:20 after his 32-save gem in Thursday’s 3-0 win in Washington and a 34-save outing in a 2-0 victory in Columbus on Oct. 28.

 But he was only able to add another 19 seconds to his total.

 Maroon gave the Wild (5-5-2) an early 1-0 lead on a sharp angle shot from the right over Varlamov’s left shoulder.

 Vinni Lettieri’s shot from the high slot through traffic at 12:03 of the second period tied it at 2-2.

 “I thought we had a lot of good shifts in the first 40 minutes,” Kyle Palmieri said. “You start the third, we were confident in the way we were playing and the game we were playing. Then one goes in against us and then the next quick. I just didn’t think we did enough to try and really push back.”

By Andrew Gross

andrew.gross@newsday.comAGrossNewsday

Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.