In Nashville, the Predators blew a lead to the Florida Panthers on Tuesday and lost 7-4.
The win punched the Panthers’ ticket for the playoffs.
Spencer Knight made nine saves in a relief role for Florida.
Sergei Bobrovsky started for the Panthers but yielded four goals and made 17 saves through the first 40 minutes of the game; he got the hook in the second intermission.
The Panthers trailed 4-3 entering the third period and posted four unanswered goals in the frame.
“I think making the playoffs was our goal,” Florida head coach Joel Quenneville said. “At the beginning of the year, that’s our goal. We want to be a playoff team and we want to finish as high as we can, and then we’ll sort it out when you get to the next season. This has been a fun year for us as far as making some progress and being consistent in a lot of ways.”
Jonathan Huberdeau posted two goals and five points, and Aleksander Barkov added a pair and one assist in the win.
“It’s fun,” Huberdeau said. “We’ve been through a lot. I’ve been here nine years. It’s just a fun year. I think when you win it makes it so much more fun. I like the guys, every guy in the room. We come out to the rink and we know when to have fun and know when to get serious. I think on the ice we’ve been working pretty hard. I think that’s when we win the game, when every line is going. It’s just fun to have that kind of year.”
Ryan Ellis struck for two of his own goals for the Predators.
“I don’t think that’s a game we’re very proud of,” Ellis said. “We’ve been moving in the right direction in a lot of games lately, and tonight I think we took a step back. I think this group is obviously disappointed in the way we played in front of our goaltender. He gave us a chance to win.”
Luke Kunin and Tanner Jeannot scored single markers for Nashville.
Owen Tippett got the third period rally started by tying the game at 4-4.
Frank Vatrano gave the Panthers the lead at 5-4.
“We knew we needed to bear down on our chances,” Vatrano said. “We had tons of shots, but we weren’t happy with the way we were defending. There were some holes in our defensive game tonight that we need to clean up a little bit. We gave them some goals with some breakdowns. It’s tough. But you’re going to need to score goals in the end to win hockey games, and that’s what we did there in the third.”
Huberdeau added his two goals in the third for the 7-4 final.
Anthony Duclair also scored for Florida. 
Juuse Saros made 49 saves in the loss.
“Well, I think there was only one guy that deserved a better fate, and that was Saros” Predators head coach John Hynes said.
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