The Islanders are in a much better position this time around.

With a 3-2 win at Nassau Coliseum on Saturday night, the Islanders evened their Stanley Cup semifinal series against the Lightning at two games apiece heading back to Tampa for Game 5, which is set for Monday at 8 p.m.

During the Eastern Conference final against the Lightning in the bubble playoffs last season, the Islanders always trailed Tampa Bay by at least one game and had their backs against the wall in the final two contests of that series. It was a constant battle to catch up before they were ultimately knocked out in six games.

Now, after the teams exchanged wins through the first four games of this series, it’ll be a best-of-three to decide who will advance to the Stanley Cup Final. And Saturday’s victory ensures the Islanders will get to come back to The Barn at least one more time: for Game 6, which is set for Wednesday night.

“We’re just going to stay the course,” said Matt Martin, who scored the game-winner at 17:57 of the second period. “I said that after the last game, after a loss, that we thought we played a good enough game in and just came out on the wrong end of it. We’re only halfway home.

“We’ll enjoy this one, but there’s still a long way to go here and we’ve got to stay focused, get ready for the next one.”

Despite a monster three-goal performance by the Islanders in the second period, the Lightning willed themselves back into the game early in the third. Brayden Point, who extended his scoring streak to seven games, and Tyler Johnson both scored in the span of 2:58 early in the third period to make it a one-goal game.

Head coach Barry Trotz called a timeout and his Islanders settled down to keep the Lightning from tying the game. In the final seconds, Tampa Bay’s Ryan McDonagh spun around to get a shot off while luring Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov out of his net, but Ryan Pulock dove at the goal line to save the win.

“I didn’t have to say a lot,” Trotz said of his message to the team during the timeout. “This group is pretty mature. I just said, ‘Listen, we have 10 minutes to go, we’ve been here before, let’s just take a deep breath and worry about taking care of business.’ You can’t look back, so just look forward.

“We were still winning the game with almost 10 minutes to go and to me, that was a really good sign. Our bench wasn’t panicking, we just took a deep breath and said, ‘Let’s go to work.’ ”

The Islanders continued their dominant streak in second periods this postseason. Josh Bailey got things started after taking a backhanded pass from Brock Nelson and wristing it home from the high slot to give his team a 1-0 lead 5 ½ minutes into the middle frame.

It was the Islanders’ seventh shot of the game, and the Coliseum crowd made sure to show Bailey their appreciation by serenading him with his signature chant.

As the Lightning tried to contain the Islanders, who were swarming, Cal Clutterbuck’s long shot from the blue line rebounded right to Mathew Barzal for the wide-open putback at 13:46. Then the Islanders’ fourth “Identity” line began to buzz, resulting in Martin’s backhander that beat Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy to make it a 3-0 game.

Lightning coach Jon Cooper challenged the goal for offside, but it was upheld to send Tampa Bay on its second penalty kill of the game.

“It’s gonna be a tough Game 5,” Bailey said. “[This] was a win we felt we needed, and we got it. Now, we’re gonna move forward and turn the page and start getting ready for the next one.”