New York Islanders John Tavares shoots against the Pittsburgh Penguins on SAturday, May 11, 2013 (Photo by Joe Nuzzo)

The Islanders’ Stanley Cup dreams may have been iced by the Pittsburgh Penguins this weekend, but the playoff run also cast a spotlight on their resurgence and impending move from Nassau Coliseum.

Several national print and online news and sports outlets published articles dissecting fans’ renewed faith in the long-struggling hockey team that comes just as it prepares to move from its first home to the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn—stories that at times felt like obituaries for the 41-year-old Uniondale arena dubbed “the old barn.”

“Anybody that watched the games and saw the crowd and the atmosphere obviously in the building…we got some respect around the league,” coach Jack Capuano told reporters after the Islanders abrupt 4-3 Game 6 overtime loss Saturday ended their season. “I think they respect the fact that our guys left it on the ice, they gave it everything that they had and it was great for our guys to hear the response that [fans] had to offer.”

Fans had chanted “MVP” for center John Tavares and “Let’s Go Islanders” despite the disappointing ending. The same chant in the form of car horn honks were heard for miles around the coliseum last week after the Isles won their first playoff game at home in 11 years.

A day prior to that win, Grantland, a sports and entertainment news site, ran a loving portrait of the coliseum, characterizing it as not really all that bad since “the ‘worst’ stadiums in America are often the best, and the ‘best’ are defined as the ones where you can buy sushi.”

Last Friday, the sports news website Deadspin posted a semi-autobiographical, somewhat political historical analysis, declaring “The Coliseum, from the very beginning, belonged to the people. And that was before the people’s hockey team took off.”

The New York Times wrangled a few fans, too, one of whom found out first hand how “this place used to vibrate, back when the Islanders were good.”

The Associated Press noted the Isles’ other rivals, whom fans are now left rooting against in a Game 7 showdown Monday night, usually overshadow the underdogs.

“They still take a backseat in attention to the New York Rangers, but there was that time in the 1980s when the Islanders ruled the league with four straight championships and a fifth consecutive appearance in the finals,” AP reported.

Islanders playoff fever was spreading like wildfire oddly just as four bidders publicly vie to renovate or rebuild the coliseum, including a plan by the Barclay’s Center owners who said if they win the bid, the Isles can still play six games a year at the Uniondale arena.

If the team decides to move to Brooklyn before their coliseum lease is up in 2015 as has been widely reported and what the roster will look like in October remains to be seen. But one thing is sure, reports ESPN’s Katie Strang: “Perception of the Islanders is bound to change after this.”

Kyle Okposo scored the first of two third-period goals at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale on Sunday, May 5, 2013 (Photo by Joe Nuzzo/Long Island Press).

The New York Islanders’ played a rare sold-out playoff game Sunday at Nassau Coliseum—their first since 2007—filling the arena with fans feverishly rooting for their team’s first Stanley Cup since 1983.

Before the Pittsburgh Penguins took a 2-1 series lead with a 5-4 win, a sea of blue and orange flooded the Uniondale parking lot—tailgating parties fueled partly by Cinco de Mayo and die-hards soaking up their team’s last local home games until the Isle’s impending move to the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn in 2015, maybe sooner.

“MVP!” fans chanted for John Tavares, the Isles’ center and alternate captain who led the rebound from a 2-goal deficit to tie it up at 4-4 with his first career post-season goal before the game went into overtime.

Click here to view a photo gallery of NY Islanders’ fans tailgating at the coliseum on Sunday

“It takes four to win,” Islanders Coach Jack Capuano told reporters at a news conference Monday. “We’re confident we will come out and play a strong game tomorrow.”

The Islanders’ last post-season series win was 20 years ago—also against their longtime rivals, the Penguins, in game seven. Isles’ faithful can be forgiven if they weren’t too sympathetic to Knicks’ fans that saw their team win its first post-season series win in 13 years on Friday.

Adding to the spectacle Sunday was the fact that the NHL lockout forced a hockey season so short that May is typically when third-round playoff games are scheduled. And just days prior, four groups of developers—one of which included Jay-Z—pitched Nassau leaders their plans to refurbish and/or rebuild the 40-year-old arena.

Playoff fever breaks out at the coliseum again when the puck drops 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Carlos Perez-Rodas of Uniondale was hit in front of El Rodeo Restaurant and Bar by a Toyota Corolla and was then struck by a second vehicle that fled the scene at 12:43 a.m., police said.

The first driver, 23-year-old Joshua Dauphin of Farmingdale, was trying to stop southbound traffic on Broadway with the help of others when the hit-and-run driver struck.

The second vehicle was described as a late model, dark-colored Mercedes that was last seen heading southbound on Broadway.

Perez-Rodas was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in West Islip where he was pronounced dead.

Vehicular Crime Unit detectives are continuing the investigation and ask anyone with information about the crash to contact them at 631-852-6555 or call anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 631-220-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.

Officers on patrol heard gunshots on Nassau Road, responded to the scene and found a 30-year-old man victim lying face down with a gun shot wound to the back of the head in front of Coco’s Bar, police said.

The victim was taken to a local hospital where he is listed in stable condition.

The second victim, a 31-year-old man, was shot in the left thigh. He drove himself to a local hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries.

There was no description of the gunman.

First Squad detectives request anyone with information regarding this crime to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-244-TIPS.  All callers will remain anonymous.

Fox’s hit talent show is hosting open auditions at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale on Thursday. X-Factor is looking for solo singers and vocal groups, ages 12 and over, for the chance to win a record deal with Sony Music.

For aspiring contestants planning to audition, the registration period is April 23-24, either in person at the arena or online. Wristbands will be handed out from 8 a.m. Tuesday until 11 a.m. Thursday. People will not be allowed to camp out.

There is no cost to audition but there is a parking fee of $20 at the coliseum. After obtaining a wristband, X-Factor hopefuls will be asked to return to the coliseum by 7 a.m. Thursday for the audition.

Other audition cities are New Orleans on April 14 and Denver on May 14. People may also audition online by submitting a two minute a cappella video from now until June 16. For more information on the rules, registration, or online auditioning visit www.thexfactorusa.com.

Oscar Castaneda, 20, approached the victim, pulled out a sharp object and stabbed the victim in the neck and back, puncturing his lung at 11:39 a.m., police said.

The victim was taken to a local hospital for treatment to his injuries. The alleged attacker was taken into custody.

Police said there is no known motive for the attack.

Castaneda was charged with assault and criminal possession of a weapon. He will be arraigned Thursday at First District Court in Hempstead.

David Randolph

Update: David Randolph has been located

Nassau County police are asking for the public’s help in locating a 78-year-old Roosevelt man who has been reported missing.

Police said David Randolph, who suffers from early stages of dementia, was last seen at his Elizabeth Street home at 3 p.m. Monday.

He is described as 6-feet, 1-inch tall, 180 pounds with gray hair. He was last seen wearing black denim jacket, green jogging pants, and gray Nike sneakers with blue in them.

He may be talking to Uniondale, police said.

Detectives ask anyone with information regarding this crime to contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-244-TIPS.  All callers will remain anonymous.

Nassau County police arrested Craig Stanley, 54, who allegedly walked up to a group of people outside the arena following a New York Islanders game Sunday to “touch the victim in an inappropriate manner.”

Stanley was charged with forcible touching. He is due at First District Court in Hempstead on March 19.

A Nassau County jury found Theodore Jerry, 36, and Christopher Robinson, 35, guilty of robbery, burglary, assault and criminal possession of a weapon.

Prosecutors said that a man and woman were in a Liberty Street home when the pair, both armed with handguns, broke into a bedroom the victims were in, where Jerry and Robinson demanded money on Dec. 27, 2011.

Robinson hit the male victim in the back of the head with a Smith & Wesson semi-automatic .40-caliber handgun, causing a laceration before the duo stole $1,100 in cash and a cell phone.

The gunmen forced the victims on the floor and covered them with a mattress and box spring before they fled the scene.

The male victim’s sister called 911 and officers apprehended Jerry and Robinson after they ran from the house.

They face up to 25 years in prison when they’re sentenced April 3.

Among the changes in the newly redrawn Nassau County legislative district maps is that the Five Towns area was split up between four districts.

The Republican-controlled Nassau County legislature is close to approving redrawn district lines that will force four Democratic incumbents into two districts when they seek re-election this fall despite legal challenges and accusations of gerrymandering.

The new political map will also put two Republicans into the same district as a part of the once-a-decade redistricting process required to ensure legislators represent an equal amount of residents based on 2010 census data. County Executive Ed Mangano, a Republican, is expected to sign the new map into law, if it passes as widely anticipated at the legislature’s next meeting on March 4.

“This is not an easy task,” Presiding Officer Norma Gonsalves (R-East Meadow) said before adjourning the meeting shortly before 1 a.m. Tuesday. She pleaded at times for the audience not disrupt the meeting in the packed legislative chamber of the Theodore Roosevelt Executive and Legislative Building in Mineola, reminding the crowd that redistricting is legally required “in order to guarantee the constitutional protection of one person, one vote.”

Legis. Dave Denenberg (D-Merrick) had his 10-block-wide sliver of his neighborhood lump his house into the neighboring district, pitting him against Legis. Joseph Scannell (D-Baldwin). Legis. Delia DeRiggi-Whitton (D-Glen Cove) saw her district merged with that of Legis. Wayne Wink (D-Roslyn). And the district held by newly elected Michael Venditto (R-North Massapequa) absorbed the part of a neighboring district that’s home to Legis. Joseph Belesi (R-Farmingdale), who Newsday reports may be retiring.

Democrats drew the current map when they had the majority in the legislature a decade ago but their proposal to keep the same districts intact was rejected. In 2011, the New York State Court of Appeals threw out an earlier version of the redrawn lines that the Nassau GOP legislative majority rushed through before that year’s elections with little public input.

“Packing and cracking have long been used to gerrymander districts,” said Nancy Rosenthal, co-president of the League of Womens Voters of Nassau County, referring to the practice of redrawing political maps to pack districts with voters registered to the majority party and crack apart areas where members of the opposition party live. “It is demoralizing to see it happening to this extent in Nassau.”

Analysts predict the redrawn map could help Republicans add two seats to their majority, or potentially three seats that could give the GOP a supermajority, according to Brian Paul, research and policy coordinator at Common Cause New York, a nonprofit organization that proposed an alternate map with a coalition of other nonpartisan advocacy groups.

That’s despite the fact that Democrats have a nearly 36,000-enrollment advantage over Republicans—368,049 Dems vs. 332,197 GOP out of 960,331 registered voters in Nassau, according to the latest New York State Board of Elections data. There’s also 212,932 unaffiliated voters, 33,408 Independence Party registrants, 10,249 registered Conservatives, 2,132 Working Family Party members, 1,159 members of the Green Party and 175 listed as “other,” the data shows.

“The only real benefit of moving 360,000-plus people is to shift things around so there is …  incumbent safety or partisan politics advantage,” said Frederick Brewington, a Hempstead-based civil rights attorney who plans to sue the county over the map, if it’s approved. “At some point the question will be asked of you—explain yourself. And in this situation, the concept of this just being a policy decision is not going to cut it.”

Critics also decried the legislative majority for planning to pass a map certain to rack up legal fees the financially strapped county can’t afford over alleged violations of the Voting Rights Act.

Brewington joined others who personally appealed to the legislators, especially Legis. Denise Ford of Long Beach, a registered Democrat who caucuses with the Republicans.

In addition to members of various civic organizations, the dozens of speakers who voiced opposition to the new map before the vote included elected officials from the villages of East Hills and Freeport as well as the Uniondale and Great Neck school districts.

Francis Moroney, chairman of Nassau Temporary Districting Commission, said the panel hired Albany-based Skyline Demographic Consultants to draw the first draft of the map before it was tweaked to address concerns the public raised at a series of hearings.

“Every decision you make flows through and affects someplace else,” said Moroney, likening the process of trying to keep communities with similar interests together to an overflowing bowl of Jell-O. “It doesn’t happen in a vacuum. And it’s certainly not a perfect process.”

Adam Haber, a Roslyn school board member challenging former County Executive Tom Suozzi for the Democratic Party line to run against Mangano in November, doubted the fairness of the redistricting process.

“It’s obvious that the will of the people is against this process and the map,” said Haber, an East Hills resident. “What’s the point of … this hearing if the elected officials don’t listen?”

Denenberg made one last stand before the meeting was adjourned for the fight to continue next month, when another lengthy debate is sure to ensure.

“The only reason for that line is to come after me,” he told Morony, pointing to the sliver of the proposed District 14 that juts into southern Merrick, separating his neighborhood from the rest of the hamlet in proposed District 13. “That line that you drew in Merrick … strangely is two houses from my house.”