Tkachuk, Panthers ease past Lightning in Game 1 of Eastern 1st Round

TAMPA -- Matthew Tkachuk had two goals and an assist for the Florida Panthers in a 6-2 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference First Round at Amalie Arena on Tuesday.

Tkachuk, who missed the final 25 games of the regular season with a lower-body injury he sustained at the 4-Nations Face Off in February, scored two power-play goals for the Panthers to cap off a three-goal second period.

"The main thing was being back and just being back with the guys and being able to compete with them and just being around them again," Tkachuk said. "It's been a long two months, and some good days, some bad days, just so many highs and lows. So just, I've just got a ton of people to thank for getting me to this point."

Nate Schmidt scored twice, and Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett each had a goal and an assist for the Panthers, who are the No. 3 seed from the Atlantic Division. Sergei Bobrovsky made 20 saves.

"It's playoff hockey and everyone has to bring their best," Bobrovsky said. "They're a good team, too, they've got a really good offense. It's going to be competitive. It's one game. We're happy about the result and we're getting ready for the next one."

Jake Guentzel and Brayden Point scored for the Lightning, who are the No. 2 seed from the Atlantic Division. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 11 saves.

Game 2 of the best-of-7 series will be here on Thursday (6:30 p.m. ET; TBS, TRU, MAX, FDSNSUN, SCRIPPS).

"A series isn't won in one game, that's a positive," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "In the end we gave up six goals. We're a pretty decent defensive team and we're good on the PK, and we gave up three on that. We can sit here and dissect this game all we want, bottom line is we lost. We'll turn the page and move on."

Bennett gave Florida a 1-0 lead at 3:44 of the first period when he deflected a pass from Mackie Samoskevich out of the air.

Guentzel tied it at 1-1 with a power-play goal at 12:21, tucking in a loose puck off a shot from Nikita Kucherov.

Reinhart put the Panthers back in front 2-1 at 19:15 when he redirected the puck past Vasilevskiy's glove after a point shot from Dmitry Kulikov.

"That one [hurt] a little bit, obviously," Lightning captain Victor Hedman said. "But you know, still 40 minutes left. For us, we've got to be able to do a better job starting that second period and not give up three goals."

Said Cooper, "We should have had a better response in the second, but unfortunately we didn't."

Schmidt extended the lead to 3-1 at 4:41 of the second period, cleaning up a loose puck in front of the net after Vasilevskiy failed to control a save off a shot from Brad Marchand.

Tkachuk pushed it to 4-1 with a power-play goal at 4:55, beating Vasilevskiy five-hole from the low slot. His second power-play goal, a wrist shot from the right circle that deflected in off Hedman's skate, made it 5-1 at 9:44.

"He's not really a guy you can put a label on because he's such a unicorn of a player," Schmidt said of Tkachuk. "But I think more than anything, just how he is in the room, getting the guys fired up before the game. You feel his energy, you feel his excitement in the locker room, and I think it takes the edge off of guys quite a bit."

Said Cooper: "Matthew is good on the power play, really good. He knows what he's doing down there. We kind of gave him the second one when we threw it right on his stick. We've got to be better. We have a pretty darn good penalty kill and they went 3-for-3 (on the power play). That's on us."

Point made it 5-2 at 13:04 of the second with a one-timer from the left circle off a pass from Ryan McDonagh.

"They had the momentum, you know, after they got it to 2-1," McDonagh said. "And we obviously didn't have a great start to that second period. Didn't have a great start to the series, like we talked about, but like I said, it's a series. We know we can be better, and we've got another level, and we'll find a way to get to that."

Schmidt scored the Panthers' third power-play goal at 5:09 of the third period for the 6-2 final.

"I'm glad we won the game. I think we handled it reasonably well. I'll focus more on the first 30 minutes of that game for kind of answers to where the game goes next," Florida coach Paul Maurice said. "I'm not a huge believer in momentum, I'm really not. The puck drops and that's your opportunity to change momentum. Both teams will look at the game and find things they can do better."

NOTES: Lightning forward Anthony Cirelli left the game early in the second period and did not return. There was no update on his status postgame. ... Bobrovsky passed Pekka Rinne (45) for the fifth-most playoff wins by a goaltender born outside of North America. The only others with more are Vasilevskiy (66), Dominik Hasek (65), Henrik Lundqvist (61) and Tuukka Rask (57). ...Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov had two assists and went 14-for-18 on face-offs.