NHL

‘WE JUST FELL APART’

The Islanders had a 3-1 lead after the first period against the Flyers at the Coliseum last night, but Ted Nolan was not impressed.

“I didn’t think we were playing all that well even with the lead,” the coach said. “We just got a couple of lucky breaks and were just fortunate that period. We were cheating a little bit. Then we just fell apart.”

If he didn’t like that, he certainly didn’t like anything he saw after the first, as things only got worse.

The Isles allowed three power-play goals for the second time this season and dropped a 5-3 decision.

Nolan called the effort “a reluctance to shoot, a reluctance to backcheck, to chip it in, a total team fall-apart.”

That might be a bit extreme, as the Islanders also were victims of some unfortunate bounces, two of which were immediately turned into goals by Scott Hartnell, who notched a hat trick in the win.

The “fall-apart” negated the Isles early lead, which was particularly painful considering how tight things are in the Atlantic Division.

They entered last night’s game just four points out of first, but after Pittsburgh’s win over Montreal last night, the Islanders stand closer to last than to first.

After building the 3-1 lead with goals from Richard Park, Josef Vasicek – his first in 15 games coming off a beautiful feed from Miroslav Satan – and Bill Guerin, the Isles fell flat.

On two of the Flyer goals, fate seemed against the Isles. Hartnell scored 13:00 into the second, tying the game at 3-3, when the puck was kicked directly in front of the net following a hard wrap-around.

The Flyers took the lead 54 seconds into the third on another Hartnell power-play goal, this time when the puck caromed off of the glass behind the net and trickled off goalie Rick DiPietro’s pads.

Hartnell again was left with a virtually empty net as DiPietro was forced to scramble back.

“It’s hard,” DiPietro said. “It looks like you’re going to kill a penalty off and then that happens, especially when you’re playing such an important game.”

Nolan, however, wasn’t particularly sympathetic to his team’s plight, even as it was again without three of its best defensemen, with Brendan Witt (ankle), Radek Martinek (leg) and Chris Campoli (shoulder).

“Bounces happen all the time,” said Nolan, whose team’s chances were ended when Mike Richards wristed one past DiPietro at 12:11 of the third.

Now, the Isles have lost three straight at the Coliseum for the first time of the season.

dan.martin@nypost.com