Florida has recorded a shutout in each of its past three victories

We’re down to the final two games of the Florida Panthers regular season.

Florida is still looking to lock up home ice advantage in at least the opening round, but perhaps more, depending how things shake out over the coming few days.

First, the Panthers will face the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday afternoon at Amerant Bank Arena.

Florida enters play Saturday with 106 points in the standings.

They’re one point back of the Boston Bruins for first place in the Atlantic Division and five points ahead of third place Toronto.

Both the Leafs and Bruins have three games remaining.

Florida’s magic number to clinch at least second place is down to just one, which means if Toronto loses to Detroit in any fashion on Saturday, it doesn’t matter what the Panthers do, they’d still clinch the spot.

But Florida will be looking to continue their current string of solid games when they host the Sabres on Saturday, as the team has been working its way out of a funk that had the Cats looking anything but scary for several weeks.

Florida is currently a riding a four-game points streak (3-0-1) in which all three on the victories have come by way of the shutout. 

They'll look to keep that going against a Sabres team that Florida has had its way with recently, sporting a 9-1-0 record in their past ten meetings. 

The Panthers have won both matchups with Buffalo so far this season by a combined score of 7-2.

Former Sabres captain Kyle Okposo is expected to be in the lineup against his former club after taking rushes on the Kevin Stenlund line during Friday’s practice at the Baptist Health IcePlex in Fort Lauderdale.

Florida acquired Okposo at last month’s NHL Trade Deadline.

In goal for the Panthers will be Sergei Bobrovsky. He’s coming off Thursday’s 25-save shutout of the Columbus Blue Jackets, Bob’s sixth clean sheet of the season.

The game will represent Bobrovsky’s 700th appearance in the NHL.

Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Saturday’s battle with Buffalo:

Vladimir Tarasenko – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart

Nick Cousins – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk

Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Evan Rodrigues

Kyle Okposo – Kevin Stenlund – Ryan Lomberg

Gus Forsling – Oliver Ekman-Larsson

Niko Mikkola – Brandon Montour

Josh Mahura – Dmitry Kulikov 

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