In Tampa, Steven Stamkos and Brandon Hagel hit for doubles on Saturday, and the Lightning cruised to a 6-3 win over the Panthers in Game 4 if their first round series.  “We came out with fire and we got rewarded,” Tampa’s Victor Hedman said. “Special teams was big, power play, short-handed, 4-on-4 … those were the kind of goals we got and that’s big for us. They pushed back in the second, but I thought we had a tremendous third and deserved the win.”

The win forces the series to a Gam5, in Sunrise.

Tampa Bay took a 3-0 lead in the opening stanza.

Stamkos hit off the power play at 8:54, scoring off a sharp angle in the left circle, and a shot rebounded to him for the one-timer, and a 1-0 lead.

“It’s a period at a time for us at this point, for us that’s the mentality,” Stamkos said. “We had a great start, that’s something that we’ve been struggling with lately. Obviously to get a power-play goal, too, that was a big reason why we didn’t have success last game … to get that was a confidence boost.”

Hagel potted his first of the game at 8:09 of the first after stealing the puck in the defensive zone on a penalty kill. He drifted to mid slot area and wristed the puck home for the 2-0 advantage.

Seven minutes later Brayden Point skated the puck down the right side boards, went behind the net and wrapped the puck around the defenseman for a 3-0 lead after the first 20 minutes of play.

“We were a little bit slow and then we had a little problem with some special teams stuff tonight,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “That’s the recipe for a tough one.”

Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves in the win.

In the middle frame, the Panthers’ Carter Verhaeghe took a a pass from the backboard and wristed it into the net to trim the deficit to 3-1.

“You give up three goals in the first … they’re a really good team over there and they are going to score goals,” Verhaeghe said. “We gave a valiant effort to come back and it wasn’t enough.

“It’s a best-of-7 series, we’re just going to try and win another game, we’ll have another opportunity next game and that’s all that we’re thinking about.”

Hagel picked up his double midway through the second period when he drifted right to left into the mid slot, again, for another wrister and a 4-1 lead to the Lightning. He was assisted by Mikhail Sergachev , who made his return from a broken leg suffered on 7 February.

“The body is an amazing thing because the body heals … it’s that mental hurdle you have to get over,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “And at some point, he was going to have to play a game. You can tell when a player is ready and when a player is not ready. Yesterday, we knew he was ready.”

The Panthers replied with a pair of strikes to close the gap to 4-3 headed to the third period.

Sam Reinhart scored 90 seconds after the Hagel double to trim the deficit to 4-2. He scored off a rebound just as a power play ended.

“It was a bit of a strange game with the 5-on-4s, 4-on-4s, 5-on-3s and things like that,” Maurice said. “We’re going to have to find a way to stay out of the box.”

At 14:33 of the second, the Panthers had a jail break coming out of their zone with the puck findings its way to Oliver Ekman-Larsson who wristed it home from inside the left circle to send the game to the third period 4-3 to the Lightning.

Stamkos collected his double from the left circle with a quick snap shot for a 5-3 lead to the Lightning.

“I felt great, the fans were very loud for me and I appreciate that,” Sergachev said. “I felt like a hockey player again. Honestly, I couldn’t really sleep last night, it felt like my first NHL game again. And then you get that from the fans in the warmup, it made me very emotional. I’m just thankful to be here.”

Nicholas Paul scored off the power play at 16:22 for a 6-3 lead to Tampa. He hit off a rebound as the Lightning cycled the puck around the zone.

Sergei Bobrovsky made 26 saves in the loss.

“They played really well in the first period, they scored three goals in the first period,” the Panthers’ Aleksander Barkov said. “It’s tough to come back from a three-goal lead, but we almost did. That’s good for us, but obviously we don’t want that to ever happen again.”

In Tampa, the Florida Panthers delivered a  message on Thursday night. And the Lightning were the recipients in a 5-3 win for the Panthers in Game 3 of their first round series  in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Panthers hold a 3-0 series and wrap it up on Saturday with a win on Tampa ice.

“So we’ve got a three-game lead, but I don’t feel that,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “I’ve always felt all these playoff games are incredibly tight. It’s tight and that’s what we’ll expect coming to the rink the next game.”

Mathew Tkachuk scored the first and final goal of the contest.

“We’re in a position right now that we would have dreamed about at the beginning of the series,” Tkachuk said. “But there have been stretches where they have played really well, and I think it’s been a really close series so far in the first three games. We’ve been getting some unbelievable goaltending, that’s really weathered the storm for us.”

He potted his first of the match midway through the opening stanza, scoring from below the right circle for a 1-0 lead.

Tampa replied with a pair of goals in the middle frame to take a 2-1 lead.

Steven Stamkos knotted it at 1-1, with 44 seconds gone in the frame. he was credited with the marker after a shot from Victor Hedman glanced off his leg.

“We had a couple of power plays that we didn’t do much with,” Stamkos said. “In a game that we got that many opportunities and they didn’t, that’s probably the difference in winning. We didn’t have the execution that we’re accustomed to. The effort was there, maybe the execution wasn’t there in certain aspects.”

Tyler Motte then pushed the Lightning into a 2-1 lead at 2:56, scoring off a wrister from high out in the slot.

“This is the playoffs, you’ve got to produce and there’s not a lot of time to think,” Motte said. “You have to turn the page and go right back to work. We’ve just got to push. Obviously, our backs are against the wall. This is when you find out who you really are.”

Sergei Bobrovsky made 26 saves in the win.

Midway through the second, Sam Reinhart hit from the left circle with a wrist shot to tie the game, 2-2.

At 16:30 of the period, Brandon Montour put the Panthers ahead, 3-2, scoring off a quick shot form the left point.

“Over the playoffs you’re going to get highs and lows,” Montour said. “Being at home for them, they’re going to have pushes throughout the game. We stay even keel. We’re down in the game, we kept pushing. Fourth line came up big, each line produced in many ways defensively and offensively. We got the lead and held on and kept pushing for the next one.”

Steven Lorentz stretched the advantage to 4-2 midway through the third period. He scored from in close on a chip in.

“We were fortunate tonight that we were able to contribute on the score sheet,” Lorentz said. “With the limited minutes we get, we’ve got to bring the energy and keep the group alive. This fourth line that we have with the five or six guys who have rotated through, we’re happy for each other’s success. The guys who are out of the lineup, they want to get back in just as bad, but they are happy to see us do well, too. That’s the way it’s been through the year and that’s what makes this group special.”

Paul cut it to 4-3 at 14:50 with a wrist shot from the slot off a pass by Anthony Duclair.

Tkachuk collected his double with an empty-net at 19:28 for the 5-3 final on the scoreboard.

Andrei Vasilevskiy made 26 saves in the loss.

“We were fortunate tonight that we were able to contribute on the score sheet,” Lorentz said. “With the limited minutes we get, we’ve got to bring the energy and keep the group alive. This fourth line that we have with the five or six guys who have rotated through, we’re happy for each other’s success. The guys who are out of the lineup, they want to get back in just as bad, but they are happy to see us do well, too. That’s the way it’s been through the year and that’s what makes this group special.”

In Sunrise, the Panthers scored twice in the third period to snap a 1-1 tie with the Tampa Bay Lightning in a Sunday matinee.

Carter Verhaeghe scored off a power play with 58 seconds gone in the third period to give the Panthers a 2-1 lead.

Mathew Tkachuk added an empty net strike with 2:05 left on the regulation clock for a 3-1 lead.

“I thought we played really well to start the game,” Tkachuk said. “[Bobrovsky] was not really tested and then he got a lot at once including their goal, which we will fix.

“All in all, pretty happy with the start. We had four lines and six defensemen going. When ‘Bob’ was counted on, he came up huge for us.”

Steven Stamkos scored with 10 seconds left on the clock for a 3-2 final count on the scoreboard.

The win gives the Panthers a 1-0 series lead in their first round series with the Lightning.

Sergei Bobrovsky made 17 saves in the win. .

“I think the guys who had the real challenge were in the net,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said of the dueling goalies. “There were stretches of grind and there were so many dangerous shooters who have all the shots.”

Game 2 is set for Tuesday in Sunrise.

The Panthers broke on top at 6:17 of the opening stanza on a marker form Sam Reinhart, he scored off a deflection of a shot by Gustav Forsling.

“It is always nice to get off to a good start,” Reinhart said. “We know there is a long way to go. We’re going one day at a time. We had a job to do today, and we executed. Now we rest up, recover and get ready for Game 2.”

Brandon Hagel tied it 1-1 at 16:04 on a rebound of Anthony Cirelli’s shot after the latter won an offensive-zone face-off against Sam Bennett.

“We stuck to our game, but at the end of the day, we took too many penalties and it cost us the game,” Hagel said. “Throughout a series, a team is going to push at you.

“… This is a long series. There is a lot of confidence in this room.”

Andrei Vasilevskiy made 25 saves for the Lightning, the first wild card from the East.

“They are at home, it’s Game 1, the crowd is pumped up and [Florida] had tons of energy,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “Give them tons of credit — they went to their game plan, and we abandoned ours before it even started. Give our guys credit — they weathered the storm for 12, 13 minutes and then we played. But that’s the problem — 16 teams are in, and 16 teams are out. The margins of error are much smaller now.”