Two days off couldn’t be coming at a better time for the Islanders.

A letdown performance on Saturday was probably inevitable after the Islanders played with four defensemen for most of Friday night, but the Isles overcame some very tired legs and managed to extend their points streak to six in a 1-0 shootout loss to the Flyers at UBS Arena, courtesy of Tyson Foerster’s game-winner in the fourth round of the skills competition.

“Pretty ugly hockey game,” Anders Lee said, accurately.

The Islanders tried their best to grit it out, keeping the game as low-event as possible and leaning on Ilya Sorokin in net when needed.

But after getting to the shootout with neither goalie having given an inch, Foerster finally solved Sorokin.

It looked like the Islanders might get a reprieve after they killed off Alexander Romanov’s interference penalty before the halfway mark of the final period.

That — along with 60 minutes of desperation in the defensive zone and a 40-save regulation shutout for Sorokin — was enough to get the Islanders a point which, on a night like this, qualifies as a tacit victory.

“I thought the effort was outstanding,” coach Lane Lambert said. “I’m proud of our team. We’ve played a lot of hockey lately, traveled a lot lately, including last night. Four defensemen that played last night — played a ton of minutes last night — and I thought it wasn’t necessarily pretty at times, but I thought we gutted it out. And we battled, and I give our team full marks.”

The Islanders’ three-on-three woes continued as they failed to convert a series of chances in the back-and-forth overtime period, including Bo Horvat and Mathew Barzal both having chances on the doorstep on which they could not end the game.

Still, the Islanders, who have 22 points, are just one point behind the second-place Flyers tied for second in the Metropolitan Division — a sentence which would have been unfathomable a little over a week ago.

It was not as dire a situation as Friday night in Ottawa, where the Islanders literally played with four defensemen for most of the game.

But where adrenaline might have gotten them through that win, it was clear by the second period on Saturday that the Islanders had some tired legs on the back end and would need some serious help from their goaltender to win this one.

The first five minutes were really the only time all night that the Islanders were able to match the Flyers’ energy.

After that, they endured a 17:55 spell without a shot, crossing over the first and second periods and spent most of the game in their own end.

“I thought we stuck with it and battled,” Ryan Pulock said. “We battled in front of the net, we battled in the corners and obviously a 0-0 game, shootout, you want the extra point. But we just gotta learn and move on.”

Although Grant Hutton and Samuel Bolduc could spell the top-four defenders at times, the Islanders still looked like a team very much missing Adam Pelech, who went on long-term injured reserve Saturday, and Sebastian Aho, who is out for an unknown period of time.

The addition of Mike Reilly, who was claimed on waivers Saturday and will join the team on Sunday, should help shore up the back end. But the Islanders nonetheless will have to endure at least three-plus weeks without Pelech — their rock on the blue line — as he is not eligible to come off LTIR until Dec. 19.

The Islanders had no choice but to try and get through Saturday as best they could, using Noah Dobson on the left side to form a pair with Scott Mayfield and keeping Romanov with Pulock.

“It was a lot of minutes,” said Dobson, who played nearly 60:00 between Friday and Saturday. “But that’s why you gotta work hard in the summer. You gotta prepare for times like these. Never gonna complain about too much ice time.”

The Islanders will learn a lot about themselves and their team in the coming weeks. But there is little questioning the character of the defense corps after the last two nights.

“I thought our guys did a great job of surviving,” Lambert said. “It’s not pretty but at those moments, when those players are tired, that’s when you really find out about resilience.”