The Islanders played a terrific six minutes Saturday night.

Unfortunately for them, there were 54 minutes left after that.

And for all of Ilya Sorokin’s heroics in net, the Islanders’ netminder couldn’t overcome the team in front of him Saturday night, as the Predators defeated the Isles 4-3 on Roman Josi’s late winner, snapping the home side’s nascent three-game winning streak.

“We didn’t regain the momentum and the game we wanted to play the rest of the way,” captain Anders Lee said. “We had a tough night, no doubt about it.”

The game was tied at three entering the final 20 minutes, but the writing was on the wall after the Predators had played up ice for the entire second period — which coach Patrick Roy called “probably our worst period of the year” after the game.

The Islanders were managing the puck poorly, struggling to break out and to clear out the area in front of Sorokin’s crease, essentially leaving the goaltender to fend for himself.

Given how well Sorokin — who had 38 saves on 42 shots — has played lately, it’s perhaps unsurprising that playing in such a way didn’t immediately doom the Islanders.

Tony DeAngelo did not leave much to interpretation in the second period, though, when he told the team’s radio broadcast, “We’re horrible tonight. This is a really bad game for us.”

Ironically, DeAngelo appeared to break the tie just 1:10 into the third, but his shot that found the back of the net was immediately called off for goaltender interference. The Islanders, believing that Anthony Duclair had contacted Juuse Saros outside of the crease, challenged the call but lost.

“I think Saros did a pretty good job to sell it,” Roy said. “Threw the blocker and everything. Might have an Oscar for that one.”

The Islanders’ play in the third was at least better than the second, insofar as they weren’t bleeding chances throughout. But they remained sloppy with the puck and finally, it cost them.

With the teams skating at four-on-four, Ryan Pulock accidentally skated the puck out of the zone while trying to go across the blue line and was caught offside — somehow not the only time the Islanders committed that mindless error on Saturday.

Following the ensuing faceoff, Josi’s snipe beat Sorokin with 1:45 to go in the game, handing the Predators a 4-3 lead they took to the bank.

The Islanders immediately felt the standings consequences of the loss, with the Penguins pulling two points ahead thanks to their win over the Rangers and the Capitals within four after beating the Hurricanes. Having frittered this one away, they were left to ponder the wreckage.

“I think we could’ve done a better job using the middle,” Pelech said. “Felt like a lot of times we get past one guy and we just couldn’t make the next play. They came hard, but at the same time, we gotta communicate more. We have to execute.”

At the start of the night, the Islanders had a juiced-up home crowd believing they’d march to an easy win.

Mathew Barzal opened the scoring just 89 seconds into the game with a bizarre-looking goal that saw him hit Anthony Duclair’s rebound out of the air before the puck caromed off the post, off Juuse Saros and in.

The Islanders looked poised to blow out the Predators a few minutes later after Matthew Schaefer followed up a few dominant shifts with his 15th goal of the season, a laser from the left circle to make it 2-0.

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As quickly as the momentum had built, it dissipated. Filip Forsberg pulled Nashville within 2-1 with a power-play goal at the 9:59 mark and just under three minutes later, Matthew Wood made Schaefer pay for a turnover behind his own net with a one-timer to tie the game.

Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s goal off the rush at 7:21 of the second put the Islanders back in front, but it was only a brief reprieve. Forsberg’s second goal of the night, a shot from the left post that sputtered over the line, was the only blemish on Sorokin’s record in an otherwise flawless second period.

The goaltender was the only thing keeping the Islanders in the game in the second, stopping 22 shots over 20 minutes including a terrific save on Michael Bunting in front.

“We weren’t clearing pucks. We weren’t getting the blocks we wanted. They played a good offensive game in the zone tonight,” Lee sad. “Over 60 minutes, it wore on us. We weren’t able to break it.”