This was not a pretty win. It was not a particularly emphatic win.

It was not especially entertaining, nor was it even the best hockey the Islanders have played on a homestand where they’ve lost four of their first five games.

All that said, the Islanders did what they had to do and issued a reminder on Tuesday night that, no, they have not forgotten how to win games.

Anthony Duclair (right) celebrates with a teammate after scoring the game-winning goal in the Islanders’ 2-1 home win over the Lightning on Dec. 2, 2025. Robert Sabo for New York Post

They beat the Lightning 2-1 at UBS Arena to snap Tampa’s seven-game win streak, give general manager Mathieu Darche a win over his old employer and end their own three-game losing streak, grinding out the sort of ugly victory that everyone in hockey loves to wax poetic about.

This was a low-event game where time came and went. At points, you could have mistaken it for mid-September given the sparse crowd inside UBS.

The Islanders did not play their best hockey, they were rarely up ice and the top line had one of its worst games of the season. You would be right to call it a character win.

“There wasn’t much going on tonight,” captain Anders Lee said. “It was one of those games where just individually, our line, we had better than that. At least us three, we just felt like we were skating around quite a bit. It was one of those games where it just felt like it was meh.”

Lee was right in assessing his line with Mat Barzal and Jonathan Drouin, which had one of its worst nights of the season.

And Islanders coach Patrick Roy was right in pointing out the irony in the Islanders winning this one after losing a few where they felt they were the better team.

Bo Horvat (14) scores a second-period goal during the Islanders’ win over the Lightning. Robert Sabo for New York Post

“It’s funny how hockey is,” Roy said.

Still, two positive trends — which have held even amid the losses — continued. This time, they were enough for two points.

First, the Islanders were good in their own end, limiting the Lightning until the game’s final 10 minutes.

Second, Ilya Sorokin was his usual brilliant self, standing up to every breakdown to finish with 27 saves.

Bo Horvat’s goal just 55 seconds into the second period — Horvat breaking a four-game goalless streak by putting in his own rebound from Max Shabanov’s feed — was all that stood between the Islanders and Lightning entering the last 20 minutes.

Anthony Duclair, missing in action for much of this season, ended up putting some more separation between them.

After a burst of speed to break the puck out all by himself, Duclair ended his shift by burying Cal Ritchie’s backhand feed at 5:30 of the third, his first goal in 14 games giving the Islanders a badly-needed cushion.

With Sorokin looking completely airtight, Dominic James finally broke through for Tampa to make it a 2-1 game with 3:34 to go.

Ilya Sorokin makes one of his 28 saves during the Islanders’ win over the Lightning. Robert Sabo for New York Post

With pressure bearing down nonstop, Sorokin — superlative throughout the final 20 minutes — had one last feat to perform.

The Lightning owned the low slot and the home plate area around the net over the final minutes, while Simon Holmstrom and Emil Heineman both missed empty nets. It did not matter. Not with Sorokin playing like this.

“He’s been playing great,” Horvat told The Post. “Making huge saves at huge times. He was big for us again tonight. It’s finally good to reward him for how he’s been playing.”

At this stage of the season, and with the miseries of the past 10 days for the Islanders, it’s easy to forget that they are in the middle of a playoff race.

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But they went to sleep Tuesday in a three-way tie on points with the Penguins and Flyers, both of whom are ahead on points percentage, for a wild-card spot.

In that environment, they could not afford to let themselves fall further out of the race.

There was no choice but to make lemonade out of lemons, even against a Lightning team that is atop the East, even on a night where the Islanders did not have their best.

“We can’t keep coming in here saying, oh we played a great game, we’re still losing,” Lee said. “So it’s nice we don’t have to say that tonight.”