After a scoreless opening 20 minutes, the game turned when Jani Hakanpaa took an unnecessary interference penalty on Pat Maroon just over three minutes into the second.
Carolina began the kill with a great shorthanded chance on an odd man rush after the Lightning turned the puck over at center ice. Jordan Staal sent a cross-ice feed to Vincent Trocheck, but his shot was stopped by Andrei Vasilevskiy who drove to the left to make a sprawling save that kept the game scoreless.
Less than a minute later, the Bolts made the Hurricanes pay for taking the bad penalty, grabbing the lead with a power play goal. After a bit of a broken entry at the blue line, the puck came free for Alex Killorn on the left wing, giving Tampa Bay an abbreviated 2-on-1 down low. Killorn managed to feed Brayden Point on the left, and he lifted a backhander over Alex Nedeljkovic to put the Lightning in front.
The Bolts then got a big insurance goal midway through the third from Ross Colton. Off a Carolina turnover in the neutral zone, Colton grabbed a loose puck and skated down the right wing to the faceoff circle where he snapped a wrist shot past Nedeljkovic to double the lead.
The Lightning convincingly won the special teams battle. Tampa Bay scored the game-winner on the power play and held the Hurricanes scoreless on their three chances with the man advantage.
Tampa Bay will now wait for the conclusion of the Islanders-Bruins series to find out their next opponent. New York currently leads that series 3-2 with home ice in Wednesday's Game 6.
Scoring Summary
1st Period
No Scoring
2nd Period
TBL | 4:06 Brayden Point (8) - Alex Killorn, Nikita Kucherov - PPG
3rd Period
TBL | 9:04 Ross Colton (3) - Unassisted
