TAMPA – Once again, the teams at the top of the Eastern Conference are trying to finish first overall, not so much for the accolades that come with winning the conference, but for the chance to face the Islanders in the first round.

Such is the talk down here, where the Lightning have a good chance of finishing first and drawing a first-round playoff series with the Islanders. They’re looking forward to that, mostly because they view the Isles as an easier opponent than the Devils or Montreal. Once again, the Islanders are underdogs, and that’s a tag they embrace.

Last spring, the Wild was the same type of team. It went all the way to the conference finals with opponents frothing at the mouth with the hopes of playing it, but Cliff Ronning, who comes into tonight’s game against the Bolts with four points in his last two, thinks the Islanders are better than the Wild team he played with last year.

“This team here has a lot of talent, even more talent than Minnesota. And yet, we, as a team, have to keep coming together,” said Ronning, who’s been an underdog since he started playing NHL hockey almost 20 years ago. “We’ve become really tight as a team. In the dressing room, it’s definitely gotten way better. You can feel it. You can see guys really working harder on the ice now with their second effort.”

Such was the mission Isles GM Mike Milbury laid out for the team when it went into training camp in September. So could it be that the Islanders, at just the right time, are finally playing for each other?

“That’s what I see. It’s developing into that. That’s the way it’s going to have to be, when it comes to crunch time now,” Ronning said. “The teams that come together are the teams that always do well. I think back to ’94, we didn’t have the best team in Vancouver [a team that went to the Finals]. Compared to other teams, they had way more talent.

“You just never know,” he added. “I like what we have here. But you know what? A lot of other teams like what they have, too.”

And a lot of other teams would love a first-round date with the Islanders.

* Adrian Aucoin rejoined the team yesterday after spending the weekend at home with his wife, who gave birth to their third child, a girl . . . Shawn Bates, who missed the last two games with a groin injury, was sent home yesterday for treatment that will sideline him the rest of this road trip.