Islanders 5

Bruins 2

Trent Hunter didn’t care how it went in.

“I would have done anything, used my teeth if I had to,” he said following his game-winning goal scored on a headfirst dive at the Boston net in the third period. “The puck was kind of laying there, just one of those things when you take a swipe and you don’t know where it’s going or anything. I was pretty happy to see it go in.”

Happy would have been an understatement as the orange-clad Islanders mobbed Hunter on the back wall as he wore an ear-to-ear smile. Hunter skated into last night’s 5-2 win in the Coliseum against the Bruins with a giant gorilla on his back, snake-bitten despite regularly wearing a blue collar for the Islanders – he hadn’t scored in 13 games.

“He’s been working hard,” said Rick DiPietro (29 saves). “You could see him pushing a little extra, trying to get things back on track. The only thing you can do is keep working hard, getting scoring chances and they’re bound to go in.

“Tonight he just had a nose for the puck and things went his way, finally.”

On Thursday against the Flyers, Hunter registered a team-high nine shots on goal and missed the net on his best opportunity in what was the clearest example of the sickness in his stick. Heck, even last night Hunter had what could have been the hex-breaking goal taken away when video review showed a second-period score actually went in off Shawn Bates in front of the net.

“The only thing you can do is work hard and just keep going and not let it affect the rest of your game,” said Hunter, who led the Isles with 25 goals the last season as a rookie.

Last night’s goal, Hunter’s second of the season, snapped a 2-2 tie in the third period and stood up as the winner on a night the Isles got crucial scores from a brigade of their workers. Bates scored two goals and Arron Asham, moved back to left wing on the top line next to Alexei Yashin, scored 1:06 after Hunter’s goal to power the Isles out of what had been a tie early in the third period.

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Janne Niinimaa continued to struggle, and was whistled for four of the Islanders’ seven minors. … Scouts from Minnesota, Ottawa and Detroit were in attendance.

evan.grossman@nypost.com