Pierre-Luc Dubois had a goal and two assists, and Alexandre Texier scored twice for the Blue Jackets, who will play the Boston Bruins or Toronto Maple Leafs in the second round. The Maple Leafs lead that best-of-7 series 2-1 with Game 4 at Toronto on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, TVAS, NESN).
The Blue Jackets are the 10th team in NHL history to win a playoff series against a team that had at least 30 more points in the regular season (128-98). Tampa Bay tied the NHL record with 62 wins this season (1995-96 Red Wings).
"We lost in the playoffs," Tampa Bay captain Steven Stamkos said. "If you don't accomplish your goal of winning it all, it's a failure. We don't care about what happened in the regular season.
"They were the better team. They executed their game plan. I don't know. I don't know what to say. If we had the answers, we would have found a way to win a game. It [stinks]."
Texier, in his sixth NHL game (fourth in the playoffs), scored his first playoff goal while on the power play at 2:26 of the first period for a 1-0 lead.