The Islanders won their most important game of the season on Thursday.

Now, they need to win their newest most important game of the season on Saturday.

Such is the reality of the playoff race, which took a much-needed breather on Friday, with the entire NHL off.

There will be no such reprieve Saturday, when the jostling will recommence, with the Islanders, Panthers and Penguins all playing the 80th of their 82 regular-season games.

The Islanders and Panthers are tied on points with 89.

Because Florida has 35 regulation wins to the Islanders’ 34, however, it holds the first wild-card spot.

The Penguins are one point behind both teams with 88 points.

The Islanders will host the Flyers at UBS Arena on Saturday, while Florida will play at Washington and Pittsburgh will have a matinee contest in Detroit.

According to MoneyPuck, the Islanders’ playoff odds would jump to 88.2 percent with a regulation victory Saturday, and would drop to 54.2 percent with a regulation loss.

The 7:30 puck drop for the Islanders is the latest of the three, so they will be scoreboard-watching before they try to carry over the effort from their 6-1 victory Thursday over the Lightning.

Want to catch a game? The Islanders schedule with links to buy tickets can be found here.

“Everybody knew what was at stake,” Bo Horvat said following the win Thursday. “We gotta bring that mindset to every game here in the final stretch. All of the teams that we wanted to lose [on Thursday], won. Thankfully, we won.”

“Fate’s in our hands. We just gotta keep winning and playing our game and the rest will take care of itself.”

Indeed, the Islanders will make the playoffs if they win out.

On paper, the schedule makes such a task look doable.

All of their remaining opponents — the Flyers, Capitals and Canadiens — have been eliminated from contention.

All three, though, have beaten the Islanders this season: Philadelphia 3-1 on Nov. 29, Washington 4-3 in overtime on Jan. 16 and Montreal 4-3 in overtime on Feb. 11.

And with John Tortorella behind the bench (or, recently, up in the press box) for the Flyers, there won’t be much question about the visiting team’s effort in a game only meaningful for draft position.

The Islanders need to match the Flyers’ effort with the sort of intensity they showed from puck drop against the Lightning.

“I don’t think anything needs to be said. I think everyone understands, we’re down to the nitty gritty,” Ryan Pulock said. “We have to clock points. It’s a tight race. I think we can control our spot if we win games, everyone knows that in here.”

Nearly every game the Islanders have played over the past two months has had a do-or-die feel, a product of the team digging itself a hole throughout December and January before tearing through February and March.

As a result of their regrettable losses, the Islanders are lucky to be alive in the playoff race.

They also have been frustratingly unable to pull away, despite that looking inevitable just last week.

It looks as though it will come down to the very end. This race has defied prediction all year, however, so why would it stop now?

The effort Thursday matched the moment, with the Islanders swarming the neutral zone and yielding no ground to a Lightning team that, by the end of the game, was down to just nine forwards after Tanner Jeannot and Pat Maroon exited with injuries.

If the Islanders play that way three more times, they will be home free.

“We have to win hockey games,” coach Lane Lambert said. “That’s it.”