Islanders coach Lane Lambert conceded — correctly so — that his team took a series of undisciplined penalties on Sunday, as it has throughout its first-round series.

Even so, following the Isles’ disaster of a 5-2 loss at home on Sunday, the normally milquetoast Lambert could not help but concede frustration over the officiating — specifically citing a goalie interference on Zach Parise 2:41 into the match that helped lead to a Carolina five-on-three and an embellishment call on Mathew Barzal at 8:43 of the first that prevented the Islanders from getting the same.

“The Parise penalty, certainly I thought he got pushed in. [Carolina’s Jalen] Chatfield pushed him into the goaltender,” Lambert said. “Sometimes that happens. And then next thing you know, we’re down five-on-three. Momentum shifted a little bit. I thought we got it back.

“When we had a power play where the same type of thing happened to Barzal with [Brent] Burns, he got embellishment and I don’t understand that. I thought penalties hurt us.”

The Islanders came out of the gate with energy in front of their home crowd and looked to be on their way to killing Parise’s penalty before Ryan Pulock took a no-doubt-about-it boarding call, giving the Hurricanes a five-on-three they quickly converted into the opening goal.

Barzal’s penalty came with the Islanders skating at five-on-four, with Barzal getting called for going down too easily after Burns cross-checked him — making the penalties offset and keeping the game at five-on-four (the Islanders now without their most dynamic power-play piece) instead of five-on-three.

In total, though, the Islanders took a whopping eight penalties on Sunday, five of them leading to Carolina power plays, of which the ’Canes converted two.

The Isles have taken at least four penalties in all four games of this series, and the difference that has put them down 3-1 has been their struggles at five-on-four combined with Carolina scoring at least once on the power play in all three of its wins.

Combined with a seemingly missed call in overtime of Game 2 that went against the Islanders, with Jordan Martinook appearing to have high-sticked Scott Mayfield in the run-up to Jesper Fast’s game-winner, it’s led to frustration.

“You watch different games, a lot of inconsistency, I would say, with what’s being called and what’s not,” Bo Horvat said, “but we can’t sit here and blame the refs the whole time and say ‘Poor me,’ cause nobody else is doing that.”

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Casey Cizikas left the game with 16.6 seconds to go in the third period after taking a puck to the face from the Islanders’ Sebastian Aho.

Lambert said afterward he hadn’t yet seen Cizikas.

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Carolina’s Jack Drury did not return to the game after getting boarded by Ryan Pulock at 3:30 of the first period, with the Hurricanes citing an upper-body injury.

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Sunday was Carolina’s first road win in the playoffs since June 3, 2021 and the Hurricanes’ first in regulation since April 28, 2019 — also against the Islanders.

Power plays

Three stars

1. Sebastian Aho

Carolina’s Aho scored the backbreaker to go up 3-0 in the second period and had the secondary assist on Martin Necas’ goal.

2. Stefan Noesen

Noesen picked up two power-play assists to go with the two power-play goals he already had in the series.

3. Seth Jarvis

Jarvis scored the game’s first goal at five-on-three and added a second early in the third period at even strength to put the game out of reach for the Islanders.

Key moment

Ryan Pulock’s boarding penalty on Jack Drury handed Carolina a five-on-three on which the ’Canes easily scored to take an early lead and was the first in a veritable parade of preventable errors for the Islanders.

Quote of the night

“We gotta start staying out of the box, to be honest with you. It just kills a lot of momentum.”

— Bo Horvat