This is the only way it could have ended for the Islanders, in a flurry of emotion and fortitude that right now feels like heartbreak, but in a week, or a month, or three months, will feel like a huge step forward.
This upstart team in the suburbs spent the vast majority of six games outplaying the Penguins, the top seed with a roster comically loaded with talent and a core that remembers how champagne tastes out of the Stanley Cup. But the way it ended in Game 6 of the first round Saturday night at the Coliseum was with the Islanders losing in overtime, 4-3, putting a close on a season that revitalized the franchise.
“We took huge strides as an organization,” coach Jack Capuano said. “Not many people gave us a chance to get where we got.”
No, they didn’t. With a late-season charge that got them into their first postseason since 2007, and with a series in which the young and inexperienced Islanders took two games off the Penguins and outshot them by a total of 197-167, it ended in such a hurry. With 7:49 gone by in the extra period, Brooks Orpik fired a shot from the point that weaved its way through traffic, clanked of both posts and fell behind the goal line.
Goalie Evgeni Nabokov sat on his knees frozen, and the only sound left above the murmurs of the 16,170 disbelieving fans was the cruel resonance of puck on metal that will haunt the Islanders into the offseason — the first offseason in a long time that has discernable and realistic promise.
“I think we understood what it took to get here, and we have a better understanding of what the playoffs are all about,” said John Tavares, who opened the scoring 5:36 into the first in another gripping performance from the deserving Hart Trophy finalist. “Hopefully we learn from this.”
It’s tough to say really where the Islanders went wrong in this one, outshooting the Penguins 38-21, keeping the most dangerous opposing players mostly to the outside of the ice and limiting their rushes into the offensive zone. But somehow the Penguins always found a way to match the Islanders’ surges, negating Tavares’ opener just 2:01 later with a stuff-in from Jarome Iginla. When Colin McDonald gave the Islanders a 2-1 lead late in first, it was wiped out by Pascal Dupuis’ fifth goal of the series, 10:59 into the second.
Yet early in the third, in the midst of what seemed to be the next chaotic episode in a recent organizational narrative of disappointment, it seemed the hockey gods stopped their regular business just long enough to smile on the Islanders.
Penguins goalie Tomas Vokoun misplayed the puck, Norris Trophy finalist Kris Letang handed one to Keith Aucoin, who passed it to Michael Grabner and his one-timer hit the open net, giving the Islanders a inspiring 3-2 lead.
Yet the good graces were fleeting. With just over five minutes remaining in regulation, Paul Martin took a long slap shot that deflected off the stick of Islanders forward Frans Nielsen, again hitting the unfriendly crossbar to tie it, 3-3.
Then the overtime, the heartbreak and … the standing ovation?
“I’ve appreciated every single time someone comes up to me and tells me they’re an Islanders fan,” said Tavares, showered all night with MVP chants, none louder than after the season had ended.
“We can’t expect things just to come again next year. If we push ourselves and understand it’s going to take even more from us, I like where we’re headed and our opportunities going forward.”
bcyrgalis@nypost.com