Jeff Tambellini remembers the night before the 2006-07 regular-season finale, as the Islanders sat around the TV at a Newark hotel to watch “Hockey Night in Canada.”

In order to have a chance to get into the playoffs the next day, the Islanders needed the Maple Leafs to beat the Canadiens. Then they needed to beat the Devils to keep Toronto out.

The Maple Leafs opened a 3-1 lead, blew it to go down 5-3, then stormed back to win 6-5. The door was open.

“As a young player watching some of our leaders … it’s such a veteran group and just watching their emotions go as we were watching Toronto-Montreal, and then for it to finish and now we have a chance to get back in,” Tambellini, a left-winger on that team, told The Post Wednesday afternoon. “Me as a player, that’s really all you can ask for, is to control your own destiny on the last day of the season.”