Islanders’ feverish rally falls short in humbling loss to Avalanche

The Islanders started the season thinking they could compete with teams like the Avalanche for the Stanley Cup.

That notion has long been dismissed, and on Monday night Colorado came into UBS Arena and reminded the Islanders just how silly it was to begin with. The Avalanche dominated much of the game in a 5-4 win that was only that close thanks to Semyon Varlamov’s play in net and a near-miracle comeback attempt late in the third.

After the Avalanche took a 5-1 lead at 8:27 of the third, Anders Lee, Casey Cizikas and Brock Nelson scored in succession to give the Islanders a chance to tie the game with 26.2 seconds to go. But it ultimately wasn’t enough to cover up what had been a mess of a game prior to the near comeback.

This game checked every box of ineptitude the Islanders have shown this season. Their aging roster was too slow to keep up. They couldn’t get through the neutral zone, and thus, they couldn’t generate offense at even strength. Colorado hemmed them in their own zone again and again, pelting Varlamov with pucks until some of them went in.

The Russian turned in his best game of the year in response, making 44 saves, a season-high, and keeping the Islanders in the game for over 40 minutes.

In the second period alone, Varlamov made a highlight-reel paddle save on Cale Makar, stoned Alex Newhook on a two-on-one and made 14 saves when the game turned into a shooting drill for the Avalanche over multiple stretches, including one that came on an Islanders power play.

In the third, he couldn’t perform the same.

Varlamov had perhaps his best save of the night moving to his left to stop Mikko Rantanen off a cross-ice pass with the Avalanche on the power play. But just seconds later, with Sebastian Aho’s penalty just having ended, Nathan MacKinnon broke down the door, scoring at 4:06 of the third to give Colorado a 2-1 lead.

From there, it didn’t take long for things to spiral. J.T. Compher, Makar and Devon Toews — making his return to Long Island — all scored in quick succession, taking the score from 1-1 to 5-1 in a span of 4:21.

Varlamov’s play allowed the Islanders to think they were in the game for a while, and their late-game heroics nearly turned it into a night to remember. But it wasn’t, in the end, enough to overcome the enduring obstacle of how they played much of the game.

The Islanders got on the board first, taking advantage on the power play when Lee redirected Noah Dobson’s feed at 8:59 of the first. But the Avalanche tied it up at 14:18 on a Makar snipe during their own power play, and the surge started in earnest.

Varlamov’s performance will be of some solace — and of note to any executives in need of goaltending — but the Islanders’ issues through the neutral zone and the way they were outclassed for much of the affair were jarring. They are now 21-24-8, and feel every bit like a team deserving of its sixth-place spot in the Metropolitan Division.

The Islanders had cobbled together some momentum of late, with a well-played victory over the Blues on Saturday capping a stretch in which the team started to look more like the version of itself the players see in the mirror.

On Monday, they often looked more like the version everyone else sees. Slow, struggling and as far from contention as can be.