gjoyce@nypost.com
Islanders lose 5th straight as playoff dream begins to fade Coming up empty
The Islanders are running out of time — and answers — to save a sinking ship.
After scoring equalizers in the final six seconds of the first two periods, the Islanders had no comeback left for the third and fell to the Canadiens, 6-3, on Friday at Barclays Center.
Starting the night four points out of the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, and with three teams to leapfrog to get there, the Islanders (29-29-7) lost their fifth straight game with 17 to go.
“It’s the same as the last three or four games,” defenseman Thomas Hickey said. “Those are chances to get at least one, probably two points every single time but we’re coming up with zero. It’s unacceptable.”
Paul Byron scored the winner when he took a wraparound feed from Brendan Gallagher and beat Jaroslav Halak (19 saves) to snap a 3-3 tie at 8:10 of the third period. Fewer than two minutes later, Noah Juulsen ripped a slap shot to put the Canadiens up 5-3.
Alex Galchenyuk finished off a hat trick on an empty-netter with 49 seconds left, sending the Islanders packing for a season-long nineday, four-game road trip that starts Saturday in Pittsburgh. By the time they come back home, their playoff hopes could be even slimmer.
“We have to fight for our lives,” blueliner Johnny Boychuk said.
The frustration only mounted Friday, a night when the Islanders allowed just 25 shots. They had been under siege in recent weeks with shots against reaching 40-plus more often than not. They have cut down on those during their losing streak without any kind of results to show for it.
“We were having [defensive] zone time in that last month that was just like, ‘We have to get better,’ ” coach Doug Weight said. “Now we’re never in our zone. It definitely makes you shake your head, but it’s hockey. You gotta be better and we gotta find a way. We’re not going to go away.”
Just 48 hours removed from a 3-1 loss at Montreal, the Islanders took the ice short-handed without the services of Jordan Eberle and Casey Cizikas. Eberle was still feeling sore after Wednesday’s game, while Cizikas was at the hospital awaiting the birth of his first child.
The Islanders played with 11 forwards and seven defensemen as they spent the night fighting from behind, starting just 88 seconds into the game.
The teams traded goals in the second period, capped by Brock Nel- son deflecting a shot from Anthony Beauvillier to tie it again at three with 3.3 seconds left. But the Islanders could never find the goal to put them ahead.
“They weren’t in the game and we kept letting them take the lead,” Weight said. “We’re just finding ways to lose. ... I think to a man, 35 guys from coaches to players, we have to be better. It’s a clutch time of year. We need guys to be clutch.”
As the Islanders prepared to take off for Pittsburgh, the search continued for answers on how to turn it around before it’s too late — if it’s not too late already.
“It’s difficult to watch things go the way they are when you know how much everyone cares,” Hickey said. “Sometimes caring too much and trying too hard is going to come back at you rather than help you. It just sucks that this is the time of year when that’s happening.”