Stamkos scores twice, Lightning defeat Panthers in Game 4 to avoid sweep 

TAMPA -- Steven Stamkos scored twice for the Tampa Bay Lightning, who avoided getting swept by the Florida Panthers with a 6-3 win in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference First Round at Amalie Arena on Saturday.

Game 5 will be at Florida on Monday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, BSFL, BSSUN).

Brandon Hagel had two goals and an assist, and Brayden Point had a goal and two assists for the Lightning, the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the East. Nikita Kucherov and Victor Hedman each had three assists, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves.

"We came out with fire and we got rewarded," 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."

Sam Reinhart, Carter Verhaeghe and Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored for the Panthers, the No. 1 seed from the Atlantic Division. Sergei Bobrovsky made 26 saves.

"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."

Stamkos gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 8:54 of the first period, on a one-timer from below the left face-off circle off a backhand pass from Point.

"It's a period at a time for us at this point, for us that's the mentality," said Stamkos, the Tampa Bay captain. "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 made it 2-0 with a short-handed goal at 12:09, scoring with a wrist shot from the high slot that beat Bobrovsky high on the stick side.

Point extended it to 3-0 at 15:07 when he stuffed in a wraparound at the left post.

Verhaeghe cut it to 3-1 at 4:17 of the second period, chipping in a pass from Matthew Tkachuk from below the right circle.

"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 pushed it to 4-1 at 9:40. He took a centering pass from Mikhail Sergachev on the rush and beat Bobrovsky with a shot from the high slot. Sergachev returned to the lineup after missing the past 34 games with a broken left leg.

"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."

Sergachev had two shots on goal, a hit and two blocked shots in 17:03 of ice time.

"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."

Reinhart cut it to 4-2 at 11:10 when he went to the backhand to chip in a loose puck at the top of the crease.

Ekman-Larsson made it 4-3 at 14:33 when he beat Vasilevskiy with a wrist shot from the left circle.

"They played really well in the first period, they scored three goals in the first period," Panthers captain 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."

Stamkos pushed the lead to 5-3 at 9:34 with a snap shot from the top of the left circle.

Nicholas Paul redirected Kucherov’s centering pass past Bobrovsky during 5-on-3 play at 16:22 for the 6-3 final.

Tampa Bay was 2-for-5 on the power play after going 2-for-12 during the first three games of the series.

"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."

NOTES: The Lightning had lost six straight playoff games at home. ... Florida had won eight straight playoff games against Eastern Conference opponents.