Given that the Islanders are veering toward the wrong side of the playoff cutline with perhaps the best pair of goaltenders in hockey, it’s hard to guess how ugly this season might be without them. 

Lately, the Islanders cannot score, and even their all-world netminder can’t help them wriggle away from that particular issue. Through two games of this homestand — and Thursday’s came with as good a performance from Ilya Sorokin as anyone could reasonably ask for — the lack of scoring has left the Vezina Trophy front-runner out to dry. 

The Isles salvaged a point on Tuesday but could not do the same on Thursday, when the Wild beat them 3-1 at UBS Arena following a third-period collapse. That made it four losses in a row and in five of the last six games, neither of which the Islanders can particularly afford with their season at the intersection of mediocrity and real contention. 

Right now, it is trending towards the former. 

“We have to start winning and collecting points,” coach Lane Lambert said. “That’s the bottom line.” 

Sorokin kept the Isles in the game as long as he could on Thursday, as the Wild piled up five unsuccessful power plays and knocked on the door for 50 minutes, to no avail. A Jordan Greenway shot through traffic followed by Jon Merrill getting a look on a rebound late in the second looked like a golden opportunity. Sorokin parried the initial shot then made a highlight-reel glove save on the second. 

Even when the Wild scored to tie the game at 10:55 of the third, it came on what initially looked like an unbelievable save by Sorokin, springing to his left to take away a wide-open net from Frederick Gaudreau with his glove. Upon review, though, it was ruled that the puck crossed the line while in Sorokin’s glove. 

Mere minutes later, after a Scott Mayfield turnover, Mats Zuccarello fed Sam Steel an open net, and this time, Sorokin could not get over to stop it. 

“We beat ourselves up in the third,” captain Anders Lee said. “Just can’t happen.” 

The Islanders had generally protected leads well at home this season and took a 1-0 lead into the third despite having been outplayed through 40 minutes. 

Not this time, even with an excellent 33-save performance from Sorokin. 

“That one stings,” Lambert said. 

Filip Gustavsson, Sorokin’s counterpart in net, gave up an ugly goal even by the standards of ugly goals, as Mayfield’s fling from the right point skipped off the ice and in at 16:49 of the first. On a night when offensive opportunities were hard to come by, it looked like that might be enough for a while. 

But it’s hard to win a game with one goal. After beating that total just once in their last four games, all losses, the Islanders are learning that lesson the hard way. They were sloppy with the puck on Thursday, struggling to get out of their own end and turning it over 23 times to Minnesota’s five, according to the official count. 

“Coming out of the zone a couple times tonight, we just weren’t clean with it,” Lee said. “We turned it over, and good forechecking teams will do that, but we just kind of shot ourselves in the foot a little bit too much tonight.” 

To add injury to insult, Cal Clutterbuck left the game injured with a hair over two minutes to go, followed shortly by Kirill Kaprizov sealing the game with an empty-net goal 

One point out of a possible four to open up this pivotal homestand will not put a calm group of veterans into panic mode. But it is not one bit acceptable, and the Isles know it. 

A win would have let them hop back over the Penguins — at least for the time being — and make up two points on the Capitals, who lost Wednesday night in Philadelphia. It also would have let the Islanders go into Saturday’s match against Montreal with momentum on their side and the potential to take a three-game points streak into what will be a trying set of games before the break. 

Instead, Saturday is a get-right game the Islanders need in a bad way. 

There’s still a lot of time to right the ship. But right now, the iceberg is on the horizon and no one is turning away from it.