For the Carolina Hurricanes, a win tonight over the Florida Panthers will clinch their fourth division title in the past nine seasons. A loss, and their playoff fate is out of their hands.

It's that simple. The Canes have led the Southeast for all but 14 days this season, but if they lose tonight, they could end up in second place on the only day that matters.

"We're preparing to make sure it gets done tomorrow night," Hurricanes coach Peter Laviolette said Thursday. "That's the only thing that's in our control. It comes down to one game."

With the Washington Capitals winning 4-1 over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday, the Canes and Capitals are tied with 92 points and one game to play.

Carolina has the tiebreaker edge, so a win tonight clinches the division, period. A loss, and the Canes would need the Panthers to beat the Capitals in regulation in Washington on Saturday.

The Canes would still have a shot at the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference, but they'd need the Boston Bruins to lose their final two games and the Philadelphia Flyers to take no more than one point from their final two games.

But none of that would matter if the Canes can beat the Panthers. They haven't lost to Florida at the RBC Center since December 2002, a 14-0-1 run that's the longest such active streak in the NHL.

For the Capitals, who beat the Canes 4-1 on Tuesday to pull into a virtual tie for the division lead, Thursday's win was their sixth straight and 10th in the past 11 games.

It has taken a tremendous effort from the Hurricanes to keep the red-hot Capitals at bay, going 21-9-2 since their low-water mark of 22-23-4 on Jan. 17. Much of that work has been done at home, where the Hurricanes have won 13 of their past 16 after a 6-2 win over the Lightning on Wednesday.

They have done it despite losing captain Rod Brind'Amour for the season on Feb. 14 among a plethora of other injuries, and benefiting from the trade that brought Joe Corvo over from the Ottawa Senators for Cup stalwarts Cory Stillman and Mike Commodore on Feb. 11 and the Jan. 8 waiver claim for Sergei Samsonov.

One more must-win game is nothing new for the Canes. Coming out of the All-Star break, they broke up the season into six-game segments. This final segment morphed into a seven-game "playoff series" and right now the Canes are 3-3 -- making it a Game 7 atmosphere in more ways than one.

"Just after the All-Star break, we talked about where we were in the standings," Laviolette said. "Even though we were in third place, it was deceiving. We knew Washington was starting to win some games and .500 hockey wasn't going to get you into the playoffs. It wasn't even going to come close.

"We knew we had a lot of work to do and we knew it had to be playoff-style hockey. Guys bought into that and played that way."

If the Canes lose tonight, it's possible -- likely, even -- their effort would be in vain.

"We realize we have one game left this season," Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward said. "It's in our own building. It's up to us."