Islanders let another two-goal lead slip away in frustrating loss to Bruins

BOSTON — For the second time in four days, the Islanders had a two-goal lead and looked in control of a game on the road.

And for the second time in four games, they failed to walk out of the building with two points in hand.

This time, with the Bruins coming off a blowout loss the night before, after which their coach questioned the team’s buy-in, was all the more inexcusable as the Islanders frittered away a strong start to lose 5-2 to the Bruins after going 0-for-5 on the power plays.

Worse yet, they had every chance to grab hold of the game for a second time with the Bruins leading 3-2, including a double-minor high-sticking penalty on Hampus Lindholm at the end of the second.

But the Islanders, who had scored on a delayed penalty earlier in the night, came up with nothing on the four-minute power play that spanned either side of the second intermission.

Not only that, but when given a second chance at a power play only minutes later, they again came up short, this time after both Jonathan Drouin and Kyle Palmieri failed to convert grade A chances.

And when Adam Pelech slashed Nikita Zadorov to put the Bruins — who had already scored on the man advantage — on a power play of their own, Morgan Geekie made the Islanders pay in short order, extending the lead to 4-2 with a one-timer from atop the left circle.

For good measure, the Islanders would add yet another scoreless power play before the game’s final buzzer, making it an even 10 minutes at five-on-four without a goal. The Bruins ended any fledgling hopes of a comeback with 3:23 to go when Fraser Minten took advantage of Mat Barzal’s turnover to score into an empty net.

The power play was one key ingredient in why they dropped these two points. The other was their failure to keep the ball rolling after a strong start.

The Islanders dominated the first 20 minutes, looking every bit the superior team, then came out flat in the second and never fully regained momentum.

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They took two consecutive penalties in the opening minutes of the second, with Elias Lindholm scoring on the second of those to cut a 2-0 lead in half. Less than three minutes later, it was erased altogether when David Pastrnak beat Ilya Sorokin as the Islanders futzed around defensively.

Another minute later and the Bruins led 3-2 after Charlie McAvoy threw a puck at the net, which ricocheted off Mikey Eyssimont and in.

That prompted Patrick Roy to call timeout and regather his team, whose momentum had evaporated into TD Garden’s climate-controlled air.

The Islanders, so precise in their breakouts and so good on the dirty areas in the opening period, when Bo Horvat and Kyle Palmieri had each scored within the game’s first five minutes, were suddenly struggling to manage the puck and to get past the red line.

Just like in Philadelphia, where they coughed up leads of 2-0 and 3-2 before losing in a shootout, it would cost them in Boston.

And, encouraging as the past couple of weeks have been for the Islanders — fun as it has been to watch them — these are the dropped points that can haunt a team at the end of the season.

The Islanders, or at least those Islanders who have been around for the past few seasons, are well familiar with that.