There was no trap, no stumble, no setback.
Instead, last night the Islanders decided to make their final regular-season game at the Coliseum this year an affirmation of their standing, a 5-2 pounding of the toothless Panthers that showed this team from the suburbs can run away with a win even when it’s not playing its best.
“We didn’t play the exact hockey that we played in the past couple weeks,” said coach Jack Capuano, “but we got the job done.”
The past couple of weeks have led the Islanders (21-16-5) to compile a 12-game streak of 9-1-2, propelling them into seventh in the Eastern Conference. And that’s where they will wake up this morning, after the sixth-placed Senators won and the eighth-place Rangers lost.
The Islanders also will have to stare down their five-year playoff-less drought from foreign vantage points, as now begins a season-ending five-game road trip starting tomorrow night in Toronto. So to look forward, past Toronto and past the road trip into the postseason, is a temptation that sits like a carrot in front of a team that so desperately wants to deliver for its famished fan base.
But captain Mark Streit, who scored his sixth of the season on a 5-on-3 power play as part of a 3-0 opening 17 minutes, tried to keep those longing glances to the future out of his locker room.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” said Streit, who after the game gave a short “Thank You” speech to the remaining crowd and then gave the jersey off his back to a season-ticket holder. “There are five more games left, all on the road, and this is a big challenge for us. If you want to be a playoff team, you have to win a lot of close games.”
Last night never seemed like it would be a close game, but the 30th-overall Panthers (13-23-6) didn’t just roll over for a catnap after goals from Matt Moulson, Streit and Michael Grabner. Instead, they finished the first period with a power-play goal from Dmitry Kulikov, cutting the lead to 3-1.
“I thought we started out real well,” said goalie Evgeni Nabokov, who stood tall when needed in making 26 quality saves. “After 3-zip, I think it’s just a natural reaction.”
What’s natural for a good team is to respond to any letdown, which is exactly what the Islanders did by coming out hard in the second and getting goals 14 seconds apart from Radek Martinek and Grabner — his second of the night on a gift from Panthers defenseman Brian Campbell on a no-look cross in front of his own goal.
“He put it right on my tape,” said Grabner, now second on the team with 15 goals. “I just made a move and fortunately it went in.”
Marcel Goc got another for Florida with just about 12 minutes remaining to cut it to 5-2, but that’s where it ended.
And that’s when the “We want playoffs” chant from the 15,922 inside began again in full throat, a carryover from Saturday’s wonderfully intense 1-0 overtime loss to the Rangers that reminded everyone what a great building this could be if allowed to witness the postseason at least once more before the franchise abandons it for its plush new digs in Brooklyn.
“There is going to be adversity, especially as we go on the road here,” said Capuano, who with his 82nd win as Islanders coach moved into second all-time in franchise history — 658 behind Al Arbour.
“We just have to make sure we stick to our game plan.”
bcyrgalis@nypost.com