Islanders waste strong start in sloppy loss to Predators as three-game winning streak ends

The Islanders played a terrific six minutes Saturday night.

Unfortunately for them, there were 54 minutes left after that.

And for all of Ilya Sorokin’s heroics in net, the Islanders’ netminder couldn’t overcome the team in front of him Saturday night, as the Predators defeated the Isles 4-3 on Roman Josi’s late winner, snapping the home side’s nascent three-game winning streak.

“We didn’t regain the momentum and the game we wanted to play the rest of the way,” captain Anders Lee said. “We had a tough night, no doubt about it.”

The game was tied at three entering the final 20 minutes, but the writing was on the wall after the Predators had played up ice for the entire second period — which coach Patrick Roy called “probably our worst period of the year” after the game.

The Islanders were managing the puck poorly, struggling to break out and to clear out the area in front of Sorokin’s crease, essentially leaving the goaltender to fend for himself.