In Sunrise, the Panthers did not come out as if there was anything on the line Tuesday night. 
The visiting Toronto Maple Leafs grabbed a 2-0 lead after the first 20 minutes of play.
John Tavares scored at 3:25 of the opening stanza for a 1-0 lead to the Leafs, scoring off the power play.
Noah Gregor pushed the lead to 2-0 at 11:18.
It was all downhill for the Maple Leafs after that.
The Panthers scored four times in the middle frame en route to a 5-2 win.
The victory clinched the top position in the Atlantic for the Panthers, by one point over the Boston Bruins.
The Bruins lost to the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday night.
“It was good down the stretch, and I liked this game particularly,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “The second period was the first time in a while that we looked the way we should look. You could feel it, feel the energy level on the bench. It’s a good way to go into the playoffs, and it’s not the win, it’s the style of hockey you want to play.”
The Panthers ended their season at 52-24-6, and will face the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round of the playoffs.
“It has been a crazy year, but I thought throughout it it was us and Boston kind of in the driver’s seat for the division,” the Panthers’ Mathew Tkachuk said. “It went back and forth. For us to put up today after being down and coming back to win — we were scoreboard watching. We knew in the third if we got a win we would clinch it. … It means a lot for us to get home ice.”
Anthony Stolarz made 24 saves in the win.
“You want to finish as high as you can to get home ice,” Stolarz said. “You could see the difference in the second period. That’s the loudest I have heard this building. … It was super special. This was probably the most important game I have played in my career. It was business as usual. Everyone played super hard.”
The Panthers’ Carter Verhaeghe got the rally going when he scored with 28 seconds gone in the middle frame to trim the deficit to 2-1, scoring off a long rebound of his initial shot on goal.
Sam Bennett knotted the game, 2-2, midway through the second period, scoring off a deflection.
Sam Reinhart scored the first of a double just scored 10 seconds later to push the Panthers into a 3-2 lead. He scored off another big rebound that ended up n the left circle.
“This is how you want to gear up for the playoffs,” Bennett said. “We had a setback, which should be expected, but we finished strong and finished the right way. We played hard and prepared ourselves the right way. We’re going in in a good spot.”
Brandon Montour stretched the lead to 4-2 at 13:42, scoring off a shot from the point that navigated its way through a maze.
“It wasn’t a very good second period,” Tavares said. “We spent a long time in the box (three penalties), they got on the board, got some momentum and got their game going.”
The Maple Leafs dropped to 46-25-10 off their third straight loss.
Reinhart collected his double, his 57th, at 17:40 of the third period for the 5-2 final count on the scoreboard. 
Joseph Woll made 37 saves in the loss.
Auston Matthews has more chance to hit 70 goals on the season when the Maple Leafs are hosted by the Tampa Bay Lightning this evening.
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