Lightning defeat Blue Jackets in Game 3, lead Eastern First Round series

Brayden Point and Victor Hedman scored in the second period, and the Tampa Bay Lightning held off the Columbus Blue Jackets for a 3-2 win in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference First Round at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Saturday.

Andrei Vasilevskiy made 15 saves, and Alex Killorn scored for Tampa Bay, which leads the best-of-7 series, 2-1.

The Lightning outshot Columbus 16-4 in the second period, 10-3 in the third, and 34-17 overall.

"I thought we were very good with the puck today," Hedman said. "We made plays when we had the opportunity. The second and third periods were the way we want to play. We made it hard on them. I think they had three shots in the third. Obviously very happy with the way we responded after that first period."

WATCH: [All Lightning vs. Blue Jackets highlights]

Teams that win Game 3 after being tied 1-1 are 215-106 (67 percent) winning a best-of-7 NHL series.

"We can take positives from that game but we have to realize it's only two (wins)," Point said. "We can't get too high, we can't get too low."

Riley Nash and Eric Robinson scored, and Joonas Korpisalo made 31 saves for the Blue Jackets, who were 0-for-4 on the power play.

"It's going to be a tight series all the way through, so we've just got to move past this one and get ready for the next game," Columbus forward Gustav Nyquist said.

The Blue Jackets played an additional 122:01, the equivalent of two regulation games, while going to overtime three times in their previous five games, including 90:27 in a 3-2, five-overtime Game 1 loss to the Lightning, the fourth-longest game in NHL history.

"It's been quite a bit of hockey," Columbus coach John Tortorella said "From the Qualifier starting the playoffs, right away we were the first game. I think I'm going to put it up to that because it's a whole group. That's the thing that it kind of determines, is it wasn't just one person, it was a whole group of men that struggled tonight."

Game 4 is in Toronto, the Eastern hub city, on Monday (3 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN360, SN1, TVAS, FS-O, SUN).

Point extended his point streak to six games and gave the Lightning a 2-1 lead at 14:16 of the second period when he got to a loose puck and shot into an open right side.

Hedman put the Lightning up 3-1 at 18:53. He drove the slot to score his first goal of this postseason on a wrist shot between Korpisalo's blocker and body. Rookie forward Carter Verhaeghe had an assist in his Stanley Cup Playoffs debut.

Robinson made it 3-2 with his first playoff goal at 1:37 of the third, but Tampa Bay held Columbus to two shots the rest of the game.

"We were responsible with the puck," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "I'm not saying we were perfect. We gave up a couple of odd-man rushes. But we had really good mojo going on the bench."

Killorn gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead at 15:48 of the first period when he held on to the puck on a 2-on-1 and scored on a backhand.

"I saw [Korpisalo] sliding over and slid it through the five-hole," Killorn said.

Nash tied it 1-1 at 1:49 of the second on a wrist shot over Vasilevskiy's glove.

Columbus forwards Cam Atkinson and Nathan Gerbe were each unfit to play for a second straight game.

NHL.com staff writer Mike Zeisberger contributed to this report