Islanders squander three-goal lead in telling lopsided loss to defending champion Panthers

This was barreling toward a blowout victory, the Islanders getting to the net and humming on all cylinders, making a statement with a win over the reigning champions.

And then reality crashed in on the Islanders like all the empty seats at UBS Arena in the form of six unanswered goals and a 6-3 loss to the Panthers — a reminder of the gulf between these two teams and the standard for which the Islanders are still reaching.

The Islanders might be able to hang with the champs for a period or two.

But over 60 minutes, even if they get spotted three goals, there’s still a chasm between them and the Panthers — and here it was on display for all to see.

“I feel like we could learn a lot from that game from them,” coach Patrick Roy said. “They never panicked, they were down 3-0. Just kept playing the same way. They came back in the game.”

It took 12 minutes for the Islanders to take a 3-0 lead.

By the second intermission, they’d handed it right back, with Mackie Samoskevich tying the game late in the second on an undefended wraparound attempt at Semyon Varlamov’s right post.

That set the stage for another testing third, in which the end outcome felt a little bit inevitable even as the Islanders fought against it.

Despite that, it didn’t take too long for the Panthers to take the lead.

Sam Bennett put in Matthew Tkachuk’s rebound after Varlamov directed the puck right into his path at 6:19 of the third, completing the collapse as the Panthers went ahead 4-3.

There was still time for the Islanders to stage a comeback effort of their own, but instead of doing that, things got worse.

Mere minutes after the Islanders let a power-play opportunity of their own go to waste, Matthew Tkachuk sniped one in for the Panthers at five-on-four to extend their lead to 5-3.

On a night that started with so much promise, the comeback effort never got off the ground floor — and Gustav Forsling twisted the knife further with an empty-net goal.

“If we give up plenty today, it’s on us,” Varlamov said. “And then it is what it is. … Shouldn’t be 3-6, especially when you’re leading the game 3-0. I would say it wasn’t our best.”

Varlamov, who came into the night with an .868 save percentage, stopped just 22 of 27 shots, with Roy saying Ilya Sorokin would have the net Tuesday against Anaheim.

“It’s tough because Varly has been so good for us and he’s a big boy,” Roy said. “He knows he could’ve maybe got a couple of those. But hey, listen, it’s a team game. We don’t let our goalie down and we have to find a way to win those games, even if maybe he was not his best.”

After a flurry of transactions earlier in the day in correspondence with Anthony Duclair’s going on long-term injured reserve, the Islanders rolled out a lineup featuring Pierre Engvall and Matt Martin both making their season debuts on the fourth line.

So, too, was defenseman Dennis Cholowski, with Alexander Romanov out due to an upper-body injury.

All that, plus the Islanders being on the second end of a back-to-back, pointed to a letdown game following an emotional overtime win Friday night.

But just 92 seconds in, it was Cholowski who put the Islanders on the scoreboard with a seeing-eye shot from the blue line that made its way through traffic before beating Spencer Knight, Cholowski’s first NHL goal since April 24, 2021.

Some 10 minutes later, the Islanders had added two more goals — Kyle Palmieri jamming in his own rebound and Brock Nelson taking Max Tsyplakov’s feed off the end boards and stuffing it in at the right post.

That early 3-0 lead did not mean smooth sailing the rest of the way. Sam Reinhart made it 3-1 before the first period ended, after a defensive miscommunication in transition left him all alone to put the puck past Varlamov.

Then a breakdown in front of their own net cost the Islanders, with Tkachuk knocking in Carter Verhaeghe’s rebound at 6:38 of the second to make it 3-2.

Samoskevich tied the game at 18:16 of the same period, scoring his first NHL goal by flying up the ice untouched and wrapping around the left post to beat Varlamov.

“In the second period,” Casey Cizikas said, “they outworked us. That’s something that’s not acceptable.”

The Islanders came at the champs. They missed.