NEW YORK — Brock Nelson scored twice as the New York Islanders beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-2 Wednesday night and clinched a playoff berth.

The Islanders are awaiting the outcome of the Florida Panthers-Carolina Hurricanes game on Thursday to determine their first-round playoff opponent. New York missed the postseason last year, and that led to the firing of Coach Barry Trotz in May.

Hudson Fasching and Anders Lee also scored for New York, and Ilya Sorokin made 16 saves as the Islanders closed out their regular season. Noah Dobson added two assists.

Rem Pitlick and Nick Suzuki scored for Montreal, and Sam Montembeault finished with 31 saves in the Canadiens’ next-to-last game of the regular season.

Lee scored a power-play goal at 16:01 of the third period to give the Islanders 4-2 lead. The Islanders’ captain redirected a shot from Sebastian Aho for his 28th goal of the season.

Suzuki cut the Canadiens’ deficit in half with a crafty short-handed goal at 14:38 of the second period. Montreal’s captain beat Islanders defenseman Samuel Bolduc in a foot race and, with one hand, lifted the puck over the glove of Sorokin. Bolduc did not play another shift after the goal.

Nelson extended the Islanders’ lead to 3-1 with his second goal of the game midway through the second period. New York generated several scoring opportunities on an extended shift in the offensive zone, and Nelson eventually redirected Dobson’s shot at 10:20. Scott Mayfield also assisted on the play.

The Islanders outshot the Canadiens 19-6 in the middle period.

Nelson scored his team-leading 35th goal to open the scoring at 10:27 of the first period. The 31-year-old entered the offensive zone with possession of the puck and fired a wrist shot from the high slot past the glove of Montembault. Kyle Palmieri and Adam Pelech picked up assists.

Before the first goal of the game, Sorokin made a neat save with his right pad on Canadiens forward Denis Gurianov to keep the game scoreless.

Fasching helped the Islanders regain a one-goal edge with a timely goal at 18:57 of the first. Jean-Gabriel Pageau set up Zach Parise for a deflection that rang off the crossbar and Fasching crashed the net and buried the rebound to give New York a 2-1 lead.

Pitlick blasted a one-timer to tie the game at 1 at 17:38 of the first period. Jake Evans stole the puck from Dobson and found Pitlick alone in the circle.

STARS 5, BLUES 2: Wyatt Johnston scored twice, Tyler Seguin had a goal and an assist and visiting Dallas beat St. Louis to take the Central Division lead.

Dallas moved ahead of idle Colorado for the top spot in the Central with 106 points. Colorado has 105 points, but has two games left. Dallas has one remaining.

Joe Pavelski and Roope Hintz also scored for Dallas and Scott Wedgewood made 16 saves. The Stars finished with 25 road victories to tie the franchise record set in 2005-06.

Jason Robertson (109 points) had three assists for the Stars to move past Jeremy Roenick (107 in 1992-93) and Jimmy Carson (107 in 1987-88) for points in a season by a U.S.-born player age 23 or younger.