Florida sets its record for home wins but will miss the Eastern Conference playoffs.
By Alain Poupart / NHL.com Correspondent
SUNRISE, FL. — The Florida Panthers were eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention before defeating the Buffalo Sabres 4-3 at BB&T Center on Saturday.
The Panthers (43-30-8) were eliminated when the Philadelphia Flyers defeated the New York Rangers 5-0 earlier Saturday. Florida trails the New Jersey Devils by three points for the second wild card from the Eastern Conference with one game remaining.
“We wanted to go in tomorrow and have a chance to clinch a spot in the playoffs,” Florida coach Bob Boughner said. “It’s tough to have to rely on other teams. We know an hour before the game our playoff hopes were done. It was tough going into this game and get the job done tonight.”
Florida, which ends its season at the Boston Bruins on Sunday, finished 27-11-3 at home. Their record of 26 home victories was set in 1999-2000.
“It’s always good to set some records, especially whenever you can do it at home in front of these fans,” Panthers center Vincent Trocheck said. “As a way to thank them on fan appreciation night, it’s pretty cool.”
Jonathan Huberdeau, Colton Sceviour, Nick Bjugstad and Trocheck scored for the Panthers, who swept their four-game homestand this week.
James Reimer started in goal in place of Roberto Luongo and made 38 saves coming within 4:30 of his fifth shutout of the season.
Jason Pominville, Sam Reinhart and Ryan O’Reilly scored for Buffalo (25-45-12), which finished last in the NHL. Chad Johnson started but was pulled after giving up three goals on 12 shots. Adam Wilcox made his NHL debut and made 14 saves.
O’Reilly set an NHL single-season record with 1,269 face-off wins; Rod Brind’Amour won 1,268 in 2005-06 with the Carolina Hurricanes.
“It’s special,” O’Reilly said. “It’s something I take a lot of pride in. A big reason for that is my linemates and guys I’m playing with. I’m not a guy who wins every draw clean back. It’s just doing everything I can not to lose it. These guys come in and push it back. It’s not a record I hold; it’s all these guys in here I’ve been playing with and helping me out.”
Huberdeau gave Florida a 1-0 lead at 3:04 of the first period during a 5-on-3 power play when he deflected Trocheck’s wrist shot from the high slot. Sceviour made it 2-0 at 10:59 when Frank Vatrano’s shot off a rebound went in off him. Bjugstad made it 3-0 at 13:39, taking a one-touch backhand pass from Evgenii Dadonov.
Pominville scored at 15:30 of the third period and Reinhart scored his 25th of the season at 15:51 to make it 3-2. Trocheck scored an empty-net goal at 18:37 for a 4-2 lead, before O’Reilly scored with 17 seconds remaining to make it 4-3.
Panthers forward Radim Vrbata played after being a healthy scratch the previous 15 games and was honored for playing in his last NHL game.
“First of all, I think everybody is sad about how the afternoon game turned out and everybody wishes we were playing for something,” the 36-year-old said. “The way it turned out, I’m glad I got a chance to play and have my family here. My wife, my sons, they got to see me one more time. It’s a little emotional, but it was something I was preparing myself for basically the whole year. I knew this would be my last year. I was telling the guys I wish I was 10 years younger and I could keep going with this group because this is a great bunch of guys and there’s lots of promise in this team. I’m looking forward to cheering them on next couple of seasons.”
They said it
“The guys did a good job battling for me. They knew it was my debut tonight. A lot of respect for them battling for me for two periods. I just wanted to give the guys a chance to get back in the game, and they did a good job of doing that.” — Sabres goalie Adam Wilcox
Need to know
Reinhart and Jack Eichel (25) gave the Sabres two 25-goal scorers younger than 23 years old for the first time since 1991-92 (Donald Audette and Alexander Mogilny). … Panthers center Aleksander Barkov, who led them in scoring with 78 points, did not play because of a shoulder injury he sustained Thursday against Boston. … Vrbata had 623 points (284 goals, 339 assists) in 1,057 NHL games with eight teams.
Eight players will continue their season with the Rochester Americans as they have 3 games left in the regular season before the Calder Cup playoffs. The Amerks qualified for the playoffs and currently hold 3rd place in the North Division, 2 points ahead of 4th place Utica.
Going back to the Amerks are goalies Linus Ullmark and Adam Wilcox; forwards Kevin Porter, Alex Nylander, and Nick Baptiste; and defenseman Brendan Guhle, Casey Nelson, and Matt Tennyson.