Islanders' sloppy play in loss to Wild ends five-game point streak at UBS Arena

It was a whomp-whomp night for the Islanders.

They were out of sorts, not connecting on passes, turning the puck over and getting outworked by the Wild, who took advantage of the Islanders’ sloppy execution and defensive struggles.

“I don’t think we executed well at all,” Anders Lee said. “I think we were clearly off from the get-go. When we struggle to break the puck out and we struggle with our turnovers, it’s going to be a long night.”

Predictably, it ended with a 5-2 loss on Friday night at UBS Arena to conclude a 1-1-1 homestand and snap a five-game point streak at home.

The Islanders (6-6-2), who got 21 saves from David Rittich, will open a seven-game road trip on Saturday night against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. At least they have a quick turnaround to flush this effort.

“I think they beat us to a lot,” said Bo Horvat, who set up Emil Heineman to bring the Islanders within 2-1 at 4:38 of the second period. “They were on top of us. They were turning pucks over. I think they outworked us a lot tonight. It’s not our identity. We’ve got to correct that come [Saturday].”

Any momentum from Heineman’s goal dissipated as defenseman Brock Faber knuckled a shot from the slot off Rittich’s glove one minute, 18 seconds later.

Whomp whomp.

“I guess you’ve got nights like this,” coach Patrick Roy said. “You have nights where you’re on and there’s nights where you’re not on. As a group, we didn’t execute, we didn’t compete as good as they did. Tonight, they were just the better team.”

Symptomatic of their passing woes was No. 1 overall pick Matthew Schaefer — the least of Roy’s problems among the defensemen — giving up an opportunity to shoot in the slot and instead having his feed go into Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s skates. That turned into a transition goal the other way when Kirill Kaprizov’s saucer pass sprung Marco Rossi to make it 4-1 at 9:05 of the second period.

“I didn’t think we broke the puck out well as a unit of five, which we’ve been pretty good at lately,” Pageau said. “We seemed to not be able to win those little battles to get the puck out, and it made a big difference.”

Pageau had brought the Islanders within 4-2 on a breakaway at 18:51 of the second period.

Still trailing by that score midway through the third period, the Islanders went into a stoppage thinking they were getting a four-minute power play for rookie Cal Ritchie being high sticked. Instead, the call was reversed and the teams stayed at even strength, with Kaprizov’s one-timer closing the scoring at 8:33.

Whomp whomp.

Jesper Wallstedt stopped 25 shots for the Wild (6-7-3), who had lost, 4-3, in Carolina on Thursday night.

The Islanders took the game’s first five shots and were controlling play before Vinnie Hinostroza opened the scoring on the Wild’s first shot at 7:24 of the first period. The Wild made it 2-0 on their fifth shot — the Islanders had none in that span — as their fourth line produced Ben Yurov’s goal at 12:32 of the first period to finish a scramble at the crease.

The struggling defense pair of Alexander Romanov and Tony DeAngelo were on the ice for both goals.

“As a group, we didn’t have a great game,” Roy said when asked about the two. “I have a lot of confidence in these guys and that was probably not their best game. At the same time, I know how good they are and what they can do for this team.”

Roy scrambled his lines in the third period, dropping Ritchie from centering Kyle Palmieri and Jonathan Drouin to playing on fourth-line center Casey Cizikas’ wing while Drouin centered Palmieri and Anthony Duclair.

Then Roy double-shifted Mathew Barzal with Cizikas and Ritchie, and that trio was on ice for Kaprizov’s goal.

Whomp whomp.

Notes & quotes: Lee played in his 855th game, tying Matt Martin for the eighth-most in Islanders history . . . Max Shabanov (upper body) missed his eighth game as he continues to skate on his own. Roy said the Russian rookie is making progress and hopes he travels with the team, though Roy is unsure if Shabanov will be available to play in the next seven games.

By Andrew Gross

andrew.gross@newsday.comAGrossNewsday

Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.