The Hurricanes have rolled into UBS Arena and overwhelmed the Islanders before, and it’s happened so many times that their 2-0 lead inside of four minutes Thursday night felt like the start of something embarrassing. 

That it was, instead, the first act of a pulsating 60 minutes of hockey is something in which the Islanders might take heart. That it ended up making the difference in the end, that they failed to play a full 60 minutes, and that they still haven’t beaten the reigning-champion Hurricanes in 22 months are what they ought to regret bitterly. 

“We kind of let that one slip through our fingers,” Kyle Palmieri told The Post after this 5-3 defeat to Carolina. 

Indeed, the Islanders grabbed all the momentum late in a second period that was as good of hockey as they’ve played all season. But just as they started slowly, they faded fast. Their momentum evaporated in the form of an 0-for-4 power play and a third period during which the Hurricanes just had more in the tank. 

“In a three-period game against a Stanley Cup champion, they’re gonna have at least one period where they crank it up, and they did in the third,” head coach Pete DeBoer said. “We weathered the storm, we hung in there. Tough to not get a point out of that one.” 

For long chunks of the evening, the Islanders’ fourth line was physical and up ice; the second line put up two goals and the third line produced chance after chance on the rush. Semyon Varlamov, who looked at risk of getting pulled after allowing two goals on the first three shots he saw, recovered to stop 34 on the night, including a 10-bell diving save on Sean Walker’s one-timer late in the second. 

They played fast, intense and emotional hockey with an opponent against whom anything less would have meant getting swept away. 

The game rose to another level late in the second when Victor Eklund tied it at three with a high-slot one-timer from Brayden Schenn at 17:13 of the period. By the intermission, Varlamov and Brandon Bussi had traded terrific saves to keep the game tied. 

The power play, though, is one for its last 18 and reaching the point at which an inquest is necessary. It is not just that the Islanders were scoreless in four opportunities, but that they had just two shots on goal at five-on-four, rarely looking like they were actually at an advantage. 

Palmieri, DeBoer and Schenn all cited the Islanders’ struggle to deal with a pressure-heavy Carolina penalty kill as a reason why, 

“Three-point pressure, we call it, where guys are flexing out and essentially what they’re trying to do is push you away from the net,” Schenn said. “I think right now, we’re making one or two good plays, and then we really need that play to execute, to find the open man; we’re just not making it. It’s hitting a stick, or we’re not seeing it. There’s a bunch of stuff we need to clean up.” 

After two power plays went for naught in the third, their momentum faded at even strength too, with Carolina tilting the ice and the Islanders struggling to break out. 

By the time William Carrier knocked in a rebound with 5:08 to go to put the Canes ahead 4-3, Carolina had started to take on an air of inevitability. 

Jalen Chatfield’s desperation heave that landed in the back of an empty Islanders net with under a minute left only confirmed it. 

“We’ve gotta get a power-play goal,” DeBoer said. “I think that probably changes the game if we find a way to stick one in.” 

The schedule is what it is, and the Islanders can’t control the fact that the current favorites in the Western Conference and Eastern Conference just visited a few days apart. Nevertheless, this is the first time all year they’ve lost consecutive games in regulation, and stopping the losing streak at two in the last game of the homestand Saturday against the Devils will be crucial. 

The Islanders did show that they could play with the Hurricanes on Thursday. Just not for long. 

Whether that is a glass half-full or half-empty statement depends on how you read it. 

“I liked our game tonight. We deserved a point, probably two,” Schenn said. “Unfortunately, it didn’t go our way.”