The Florida Panthers have an uphill battle to earn a wild card spot in the Stanley Cup playoff picture, but the Cats may have gotten some help from the NHL's Situation Room on Tuesday night. 

The Panthers were clinging to a one-goal lead in the final seconds of their matchup against the Predators when Nashville's Filip Forsberg looked to score the game-tying goal with under a second left remaining on the clock. Forsberg's tally was ruled a good goal on the ice, but it went to video review for confirmation.

While the league's Situation Room reviewed the goal, they determined that Panthers goalie Roberto Luongo was interfered with on the play by Nashville's Victor Arvidsson, negating the Preds' equalizer.

Have a look:

Arvidsson's stick appears to spin Luongo around, freeing the puck from under the goaltender and allowing Forsberg to perform clean-up duty in the crease. Normally, this would constitute goaltender interference, but you can also make a case that Florida's Keith Yandle uses his own stick to guide Arvidsson into contact with Luongo, which would negate goaltender interference.

In the end, the Situation Room ruled that "the deliberate actions of [Viktor] Arvidsson's stick caused Luongo to spin and cause the covered puck to come loose prior to the goal." No goal.

As with many goaltender interference reviews this year, the ruling didn't come without controversy. After the game, the Predators voiced their displeasure loud and clear.

"It was a tough call," Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. "We obviously feel it was Yandle who caused the goalie to be disrupted. He got on the backside of Arvidsson and moved him, so we 100 percent disagree with the call."

"It's a goal. It's got to be a goal," Forsberg said. "I don't know what's going on, and it's so inconsistent that we don't even know when it's a goal or not, but it's one that's clearly a goal. The puck is never covered, the goalie had no clue where it is and it ends up on my tape and it's in and they somehow don't think so. I disagree 100 percent." 

In case you missed it, they're 100 percent against the call. It seems safe to assume you can say the same about most Nashville fans, including Carrie Underwood, who is married to Preds center Mike Fisher.

Un-killable American hero Jack Bauer also took exception to the call.

This latest controversy comes just weeks after NHL GMs voted that all goaltender interference rulings should be handled by the Situation Room in Toronto instead of on-ice officials. 

Despite Nashville's protests, the result remains the same. Luckily for the Predators, the loss wasn't quite a devastating blow to their season outlook, as they still hold a three-point lead over Winnipeg at the top of the Central with two games left to play. 

But for the Panthers, this win was a huge sigh of relief. They got to avoid overtime and stay on the playoff bubble ... for now. Florida currently sits four points behind the Flyers and five points behind the Devils in the hunt for the wild card. The Panthers have three games left to play, while Philadelphia and New Jersey both have two games remaining.