For the second straight game, the New York Islanders watched a two-goal lead evaporate. Monday afternoon, a sellout holiday crowd of 16,234 saw the Isles blow a 2-0 lead after two periods and settle for an 3-2 overtime loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. Corey Stillman’s power play goal at the 52-second mark of overtime gave the Hurricanes the victory.

Both teams got off to a slow start and the first period lacked flow. Mike Comrie had the best scoring chance of the opening stanza but defenseman Glen Wesley stopped his rebound attempt in the crease to keep the game scoreless.

The Islanders scored first at the 3:17 mark of the second period when Andy Hilbert put a backhand shot behind Hurricane goalie, Cam Ward. Freddy Meyer shot the puck in from the point, and it took a funny bounce off the boards and came right to Hilbert in front of the net. It was Hilbert’s fifth goal of the season.

Miro Satan gave the Isles a 2-0 lead 12:57 into the second off a pretty pass by forward Blake Comeau. Josef Vasicek set a screen and Satan took a wrist shot that beat Ward through the five-hole.

“I got the puck up and I went wide with it,” Comeau recalled. “I looked up and saw Miro behind me and tried to hold it as long as I could to get the defenseman to come to me and he did. Miro made a good shot and Josef went to the net.”

It was Satan’s first goal in 12 games and his third straight game with a point. The Isles made the two-goal lead hold up through 40 minutes. Up until today, the club was 15-0-0 when leading after two periods.

The tide started to turn in the third stanza. Matt Cullen had a good scoring opportunity early in the period when he got the puck just in front of the New York goal but Islander goalie Rick DiPietro made a sliding pad save.

The Hurricanes finally broke through a minute later when Mike Commodore took a shot from the right point that bounced off two Islanders bodies before finding its way behind DiPietro.

“You have the puck shot from the point, it hits two or three guys and goes in,” Islanders’ coach Ted Nolan said after the game. “It’s just bad breaks.”

Niclas Wallin scored the equalizer for the Hurricanes with just 4:40 remaining in regulation on a shot from the point. Rod Brind’Amour screened DiPietro and the game was tied 2-2.

The game was remarkably penalty-free until the final minutes of the third period. With just 1:23 left in regulation, Radek Martinek was called for boarding behind the Islander goal and Carolina had their first chance of the game with the man advantage. The Islanders managed to kill off the penalty which extended into overtime.

Just after the power play expired, Islanders’ forward Ruslan Fedotenko was cross-checked in front of the Carolina goal but nothing was called. When play continued into the Islanders zone, Andy Sutton was called for cross-checking and the Hurricanes had another chance with the man advantage.

“One of our players is in front of the net, he gets cross-checked and there’s no call,” Nolan complained. “One of our guys touched one of their gives, he dives and he gets called. Those type of things you have no control over.”

It took the Hurricanes just 15 seconds to score on the power play. Corey Stillman poked home his 21st goal of the year from in front after a pretty centering pass by Eric Staal.

The loss left the Islanders frustrated and looking for answers. “Sometimes, when you get a lead at home, you take it for granted,” said Islander captain, Bill Guerin. “You just figure the rest of the game is going to be like that. Against Philly, we had a couple of quick goals and jeez, we’re going to win 8-1 just by throwing our sticks out there. It doesn’t happen in this league. The other team is trying to win no matter what … We’ve got to do a better job of being ready for that.”

“We should have won this game,” defenseman Brendan Witt added. “The last couple of games, we’ve had leads and we let them slip. It’s a bitter taste in our mouths … We sat back. If you want to be successful, you cannot sit back. Every team does it, but you have to learn how to get it back.”

Ted Nolan tried to find solace in his team’s play, which he thought was significantly better than it was in Saturday’s 5-3 loss to the Flyers. “I thought we played well enough to win. It’s very frustrating. Last game, we didn’t deserve to win, so you can understand that. I felt tonight, we played well enough to get a better result.”

The same two teams meet for the final time this season Tuesday night in Carolina. The Islanders will be trying to bounce back after today’s disappointing defeat. “There’s no chance to sulk here,” Witt explained. “We have to play these guys again tomorrow night so we’ve got to be ready to play.”

ISLES NOTES

Both Brendan Witt and Radek Martinek returned to the Islander lineup which left Aaron Johnson and Bryan Berard as healthy scratches … The ceremonial first puck was thrown out by former Secretary of State Colin Powell who was on hand to celebrate Long Island Hockey Fest. The two teams visiting from China also participated in the pregame ceremonies and the Chinese national anthem was sang before the game prior to the “Star Spangled Banner” … Wade Dubielewicz was back on the bench as the Islanders’ backup goalie after a two-game conditioning stint at Bridgeport.