NEW YORK _ The game grew more exciting as it progressed from first to third period, a fact that had no correlation to the venue or size of the crowd.
But the Islanders were unable to duplicate their emotional win back at their ancestral home in Uniondale, instead falling to the Jets, 3-1, on Tuesday night at Barclays Center before a crowd of 9,125 as they allowed two goals within 22 seconds in the third period.
The atmosphere was predictably more somnolent than Saturday night's raucous return to NYCB Live's Nassau Coliseum as the Islanders rallied from a two-goal deficit to beat the Blue Jackets, 3-2, in their first regular-season game back at their cozy home arena from 1972-2015 before a sell-out crowd of 13,917.
But the Islanders (13-10-3) did not fall into the trap of a letdown, instead playing a structured game, those 22 seconds in the third period notwithstanding.
"That's part of being a professional," Josh Bailey said. "No matter what the circumstances, you've got to find a way to be ready to go."
The Jets (17-8-2) were playing for the ninth time in 16 days, with seven of those games on the road. That included a 4-3 overtime win over the Devils on Saturday and a 4-3 shootout win against the Rangers on Sunday. The Jets scored three, third-period goals in that one.
Anders Lee got to the crease and swept a forehand past Connor Hellebuyck (27 saves) after Brock Nelson had tipped Johnny Boychuk's right-point shot, giving the Islanders a 1-0 lead at 1:33 of the third period.
But Mathew Barzal was called for holding Ben Chiarot's stick in the Jets' zone and Winnipeg's second-ranked power play converted on Jacob Trouba's shot through traffic from the blue line at 3:39. Adam Lowry made it 2-1 at 4:01 as he put in the rebound of Brandon Tanev's wrist shot. Blake Wheeler's empty-netter sealed it with 2.1 seconds left.
The Islanders had several strong chances as they outshot the Jets 8-3 in the first period, two coming with Jordan Eberle trying to set up Lee at the crease on an early power play and then Hellebuyck getting in front of Anthony Beauvillier's tip of Ryan Pulock's blue-line blast at 17:11.
Coach Barry Trotz unveiled his new power-play combinations, with Barzal back on the top unit and Valtteri Filppula joining the second unit.
"We have to generate more chances," Trotz said. "We've sort of stalled out. The power play hasn't had a lot of looks. We haven't had a lot of power plays so, when you do get one, it feels like, 'Oh, we've got to make good on it.' Right now, we've got a couple of guys that are squeezing it and overthinking it a little bit."
Both goalies had some highlight moments in the second period, with Hellebuyck turning aside Cal Clutterbuck from the right post, then lunging to glove Jordan Eberle's wide-open look from nearly the same spot at 5:56. Barzal, off a rush, did ring a shot off the crossbar and Pulock did the same in the third period with the teams skating four-on-four.
At the other end, Thomas Greiss (21 saves) turned aside two close-range chances by Kyle Connor at 18:10 of the second period.
