In Sunrise, the Panthers lost to the visiting New York Islanders on Thursday night, but their ticket was punched to the post season. 
The Panthers dropped to 46-22-5 off th4eir sixth loss in the last seven matches.
They were pushed into the playoffs when the Detroit Red Wings lost to the Carolina Hurricanes, 4-0 on Thursday.
“We obviously don’t want to lose at home, but it happened and we will move on and learn from it,” Florida’s Aleksander Barkov said. “Last year, we did not get in until before the last game of the season. Now, we have some breathing room here. Of course, we know we have a lot of work to do. We need to be a little better than the past few games, for sure.”
Semyon Varlamov made 26 saves in the win.
“He was solid from the start to the end, quite honestly,” Islanders coach Patrick Roy said. “The save he made at the beginning of the game was a big one for us, and then even in the second he didn’t get that many shots, but three good chances and he made some really good saves.
He was solid in front of our net. So, that’s the performance that we needed, and it was good for the confidence of our guys.”
New York moved to within four points of the Washington Capitals for the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.
“The key was the start of the game,” Roy said. “We knew they were going to come out fast. I thought we played very well at the start of the game, and (Semyon) Varlamov made some great saves for us. It was a team performance. It was nice to see the way we played and the poise we had offensively.”
The Panthers took a 1-0 lead on a strike by Vladimir Tarasenko at 8:13 of the opening stanza.
Ryan Pulock tied it, 1-1, for the Islanders at 13:20, scoring off a shot from the right circle.
In the middle frame, Alexander Barkov pushed the Panthers back into the lead, 2-1 at 6:32, he scored off a tap in at the crease.
The Isles replied with a goal from Mathew Barzal at 8:43 of the second for a 2-2 tie, scoring off a deflection.
“That was huge. That is a good team over there,” Barzal said. “I think we did a lot of good things, played very well defensively. … They had a push. We knew they were going to have a push. I thought we weathered it well.”
Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored on a challenged goal that was held up after review. His goal midway through the second period gave the Islanders 3-2 lead they held through a scoreless third period for the win. 
Anthony Stolarz made 21 saves in the loss.
“It is never easy in this League,” Florida’s Aaron Ekblad said. “[The Islanders] are fighting for their lives over there, and they got the better of us.”
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