"It's one of the things we talked about," said Devils goalie Martin Brodeur, who made 31 saves in the game at Prudential Center. "We wanted to get into the playoffs playing well. We've played as good of hockey as anyone else in the league. Now, the regular season is over and we'll find out who we're playing.
"We will try to concentrate on the things we have to do. We did a good job staying focused. You never know what's going to happen. Now, we'll roll the dice, coming in hot."
Petr Sykora also scored for the Devils, who will be the No. 6 seed in Eastern Conference for the postseason. They will face Florida, Coach Peter DeBoer's former team, or Washington in the opening round.
"When we played them the first time, I'm not going to lie; there was some emotion involved," DeBoer said about the Panthers, who failed to make the playoffs in his three seasons as the coach. "But it's another team for me now. It doesn't matter. Other than having a few more friends in the stands, that's about it."
Gionta, called up from Albany on Friday, gave the Devils the lead for good, putting in the rebound of Alexei Ponikarovsky's shot with 9 minutes 5 seconds to play.
"It's really a dream come true," said Gionta, who played 12 games with the Devils last season. "I couldn't have imagined this. The guys were great and really supportive of me coming back. Every kid dreams of getting a goal in the N.H.L., but it came in a game-winning situation. It really hasn't hit me yet. It hasn't quite sunk in. I just wanted to come in and try to help the team. This is so awesome."
Kovalchuk iced the game with an empty-net goal for the Devils, who missed the playoffs last season for the first time since 1996. He has 37 goals, 25 since Jan. 1.
Matt Gilroy and Jim O'Brien scored for Ottawa, which finished the season with three straight losses.
It will be the seventh or eighth seed in the conference, facing the Rangers or Boston in the postseason.
"Right now, we have a fresh slate," Senators goaltender Craig Anderson said. "What happened in the past three games, and really the last 82, is behind us. We have a fresh start. Everyone starts at zero wins and zero losses, and that's our mind-set. We have to win four before the other team wins four."
The Senators also missed the playoffs last season.
PENGUINS 4, FLYERS 2 Evgeni Malkin scored his 50th goal of the season and added an assist to lock up his second N.H.L. scoring title as Pittsburgh won at home against Philadelphia.
Malkin finished the regular season with 109 points and became the ninth player in Penguins history to reach the 50-goal mark when his wrist shot with 12 seconds left in the second period beat Philadelphia's Sergei Bobrovsky to give Pittsburgh a two-goal lead.
Sidney Crosby, Chris Kunitz and Pascal Dupuis also scored for the Penguins, who beat the Flyers for the first time at Consol Energy Center.
Brayden Schenn and Jaromir Jagr scored for the Flyers, who rested their leading scorer, Claude Giroux, in the regular-season finale in preparation for their first-round matchup with Pittsburgh starting next week.
BRUINS 4 SABRES 3 Patrice Bergeron had three assists in regulation and the game-winner in a shootout to lead Boston past visiting Buffalo.
Tyler Seguin scored twice and Brad Marchand once for the Bruins, who will open the playoffs next week against Ottawa or Washington.
BLACKHAWKS 3, RED WINGS 2 Patrick Kane scored the only goal of a shootout to give Chicago a victory in Detroit.
The Blackhawks will play the Pacific Division winner — Phoenix, Los Angeles or San Jose — in the first round of the playoffs. The Red Wings will play No. 4 Nashville in the opening round.
FLAMES 5, DUCKS 2 The Nigerian-born Akim Aliu scored his first two N.H.L. goals to lead host Calgary to a season-ending victory over Anaheim.
Bobby Ryan scored his 30th and 31st goals of the season for the Ducks (34-36-12), who finished with their worst record since the 2003-4 season.
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