The Penguins will have the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference and will face Tampa Bay in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Their hopes of winning the Atlantic Division and earning the second seed in the East ended when Philadelphia defeated the New York Islanders, 7-4, at the Wells Fargo Center this evening.
The Flyers' victory means they will finish the 2010-11 season with 106 points; the Penguins could match that total with a victory in their regular-season finale Sunday at Atlanta, but Philadelphia finishes ahead of them by virtue of an edge in the regulation/overtime victories tiebreaker.
Philadelphia got two goals in the first 47 seconds of the game, but the Islanders rebounded to tie before the middle of the opening period and eventually took a 4-3 lead. The Flyers, through, responded with four unanswered goals to wrap up the Atlantic title.
Game 1 of the Penguins-Lightning series will be Wednesday or Thursday at Consol Energy Center, but the schedule has not been released yet.
The other first-round series will be Washington-New York Rangers, Philadelphia-Buffalo and Boston-Montreal.
First Published: April 10, 2011, 2:00 a.m.