Goalie Semyon Varlamov survives collision but Islanders drop Game 2 to Lightning to even Stanley Cup semifinals

Splitting on the road and dodging disaster: there were worse ways for the Islanders to open this Stanley Cup semifinal on the road in Tampa.

Tuesday night’s 4-2 Game 2 loss to the host Lightning evened this series at one game apiece as the battle shifts north for Game 3 at Nassau Coliseum on Thursday.

No one on the Islanders’ bench needed a reminder that the reigning champions’ Game 1 sloppiness was more likely an aberration than a developing trend.

They got one anyway on Tuesday, with former MVP winger Nikita Kucherov getting free for three dazzling assists to Brayden Point, Ondrej Palat and Victor Hedman.

“They’re not just gonna let us take it from them,” Isles winger Matt Martin said. “We got the first one at (their) home. We knew they were gonna come out a little more desperate and bring their best game.”

An early Brock Nelson power-play goal and Mathew Barzal’s fifth in six games in the waning minutes weren’t enough. The Palat goal at 13:15 for a 2-1 Lightning lead was allowed by the officials despite six Tampa skaters on the ice.

Then Tampa’s Jan Rutta scored a killer 2:16 into the third for a 3-1 deficit, from deep through a screen, after an Anthony Beauvillier blue line turnover.

But the Islanders had reason to exhale that goaltender Semyon Varlamov was no worse for wear after a brutal first-period head-to-head collision with Point due to a hard shove from Isles defenseman Adam Pelech, some inadvertent friendly fire.

Varlamov (23 saves) was sent to the Isles’ locker room for the final 6:50 of the first period by the NHL’s concussion spotter and replaced by rookie Ilya Sorokin. And though Sorokin starred in round one against the Pittsburgh Penguins and stopped all six shots he faced on Tuesday, Varlamov is the hot hand now.

He had won four straight starts entering Game 2, and he is the veteran whose jaw-dropping glove save on a Kucherov power-play chance in the first period went toe-to-toe with Andrei Vasilevskiy’s stunning snag of a Kyle Palmieri power play rebound minutes later.

“He was fine,” coach Barry Trotz said. “He was going back in the net, and I think NHL player safety called and said he’s gotta go into the room. So he did. I thought Sorokin came in and did a really good job.”

Varlamov continued making quality stops when he returned, too. His blocker save on Ross Colton in alone off the rush also matched Vasilevskiy’s excellent left pad stop on Beauvillier just before the end of the second.

So no, this was not the Rangers’ Chris Kreider getting tripped into Canadiens goalie Carey Price in Game 1 of the 2014 Eastern Conference Final, eliminating Montreal’s leader from the series and giving way to a Cup Final berth in beating Price’s replacement, Dustin Tokarski.

And it’s hard to put any of the Lighting’s Tuesday goals on Varlamov, frankly.

Point’s goal to open scoring 8:58 into the first was on the doorstep after a brilliant Kucherov no-look pass from behind the net after a Pelech turnover.

Palat was alone off the rush because Barzal made a “bad read,” in Trotz’s words, and joined Nick Leddy for a soft double-team that didn’t limit Kucherov’s feed from the circle to an unguarded Palat streaking in the slot.

Trotz was livid on the bench, though, because the linesmen missed six Lightning skaters on the ice when Palat finished.

“The second goal, that one hurt quite a bit,” Trotz said. “Obviously you guys know there (were) too many men on the ice there.”

Varlamov also couldn’t pick up Rutta’s point shot quickly enough through an inadvertent screen by the Isles’ own Josh Bailey up high in the D-zone. And Hedman had plenty of room to fire on the power play in the third off a cross-ice Kucherov feed.

The Lightning intentionally came out more physically in Game 2 than it had in a relatively lifeless Game 1. The Islanders didn’t back down, naturally, all the way up until the Lightning’s Anthony Cirelli appeared to leave the ice at game’s end injured after a helmetless tussle with the Isles’ Travis Zajac.

But the Islanders did end up with seven minor penalties during the flow of play compared to only three in Game 1, and that meant five Lightning power plays and one goal and nine shots on the man advantage.