TORONTO -- A native of Finland, Jussi Jokinen has no Irish blood in him, but Thursday night he was feeling the luck of the Irish.

The Florida forward netted a pair of goals on two fortunate bounces leading the Panthers to a 4-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on St. Patrick's Day.

"We don't have this holiday in Finland. It's a nice a nice holiday," Jokinen joked. "Hopefully I have many more games on St. Patrick's Day, if I have luck like that."

Jaromir Jagr and Teddy Purcell added empty-netters, while Roberto Luongo made 32 saves for his 30th win of the season.

The Panthers (40-22-9) improved to 4-1-1 in their past six games. They now hold a three-point edge on the Boston Bruins for the top seed in the Atlantic Division.

"We were more lucky today than good, but sometimes you got to take it and move on," said Jagr, who now has 24 goals on the season. "(Against the Islanders) it was the other way around.

"I thought first few shits first period we were playing very well. We had a lot of chances, hit the post, obviously didn't score and it looked like we were a little bit tired."

Morgan Rielly scored for the Leafs, who had their two game win streak snapped in the loss. Jonathan Bernier stopped 28 shots for Toronto (24-35-11). The loss officially eliminates the Leafs from playoff contention.

"We had a chance here tonight," said Leafs coach Mike Babcock. "I thought when it got to be 2-0, I thought they took the game over and ground us for a bit and then when we made it 2-1 I thought we got playing again. I thought we started alright but it wasn't as good of a 60 as we had the other night or the last couple games, so we've got to be a little bit better."

Jokinen was the recipient of a pair of favorable bounces as Florida opened a 2-0 lead in the second period.

The Panthers opened the scoring 24 seconds into the middle period on a power play as Leafs forward Ben Smith redirected Jokinen's pass between Bernier's legs.

Toronto challenged, unsuccessfully, that the play was offside and lost their timeout in the process. Jokinen's 14th of the season snapped a streak of 16 consecutive penalties killed by the Leafs.

Jokinen doubled the Panthers' lead at 9:22 of the second as his pass attempt hit Leafs center Nazem Kadri and wound up in the net.

"He put up a couple lucky pucks to the net and he got rewarded with that," said Panthers coach Gerard Gallant. "It was a pretty good game, it wasn't a 4-1 game, (and) obviously it was a 2-1 game. "We got a couple of empty netters. We found a way to win and Toronto played real hard tonight."

Rielly got Toronto on the board at 16:33 of the second period, beating Luongo under his glove with a wrist shot for his eighth of the season. The goal gives the Leafs defenseman a career high for points in a season (30).

"I think we can be happy with the way we competed," said Rielly. "Two goals that were pretty lucky. I don't think they would argue that but that's just the way the game goes.

"In the end, those two bounces are costly."

Toronto continues its six-game homestand Saturday when it entertains the Buffalo Sabres, while Florida returns home to host the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday.

NOTES: RW Connor Brown became the 10th Maple Leafs player to make his NHL debut this season. Brown was recalled from the American Hockey League's Toronto Marlies on an emergency basis Thursday. ... Leafs C Leo Komarov missed his first game this season because of a lower-body injury. ... Florida assigned D Dylan Olsen to the AHL's Portland Pirates on Wednesday. ... Panthers D Erik Gudbranson missed his second game with a lower-body injury. ... Florida C Derek MacKenzie (fractured foot) missed his third game. ... C Jussi Jokinen (lower body) returned to the Florida lineup after missing a 4-1 win on Tuesday in Montreal.