TAMPA, Fla. — Seth Jones scored the go-ahead goal on the power play to cap Columbus’ three-goal third period, and the Blue Jackets rallied to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 in Game 1 of the teams’ first-round Eastern Conference playoff series Wednesday night.
Jones made it 4-3 from the slot with 5:55 to play as the Blues Jackets erased a 3-0 deficit after the Lightning scored three times in the opening period.
With Columbus trailing 3-1 in the third, David Savard deked around Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman and scored 7:56 into the period to make it a one-goal game. Josh Anderson picked up a short-handed goal that tied it at 3 at 11:54.
Nick Foligno had the other goal for Columbus, and Sergei Bobrovsky ended up with 26 saves after struggling in the first period.
The Lightning, who matched the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings for the most wins in a regular season with 62, got first-period goals from Alex Killorn, Anthony Cirelli and Yanni Gourde. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 22 shots.
Hedman returned after missing the final four regular-season game with an upper-body injury. The Norris Trophy winner took a helmet to the face during a collision with Washington’s Carl Hagelin on March 30.
Killorn stole the puck from Jones at the blue line during a power play for Columbus and put a backhander past Bobrovsky to open the scoring 4:12 into the game. Tampa Bay was tied for third in short-handed goals during the regular season with 12.
After Cirelli had a rebound goal at 11:01, Gourde’s waist-high deflection of Mikhail Sergachev’s shot made it 3-0 with 2:10 left in the first.
Foligno cut the deficit to 3-1 at 9:15 of the second on a breakaway goal after Tampa Bay’s Ryan McDonagh made an errant pass in the offensive zone.
Vasilevskiy made a strong save on Matt Duchene during a two-on-one two minutes after Foligno’s goal.
Alexandre Texier, Columbus’ 19-year-old rookie who played in the Blue Jackets’ final two regular-season games, skated in alone on Vasilevskiy but missed the net on a shot with 4 minutes to go in the first.
Bobrovsky stopped four shots over the final 40 seconds of the second, including a nifty glove save on Steven Stamkos.
Nikita Kucherov, who had an NHL-best 128 points in the regular season, was held without a point but had an in-close chance turned aside by Bobrovsky and hit the crossbar during the opening minute of the second during a power play.
BLUES 2, JETS 1: Tyler Bozak scored with 2:05 left in the third period to give visiting St. Louis a win in the opener of its Western Conference playoff series.
David Perron also scored for St. Louis early in the third.
Patrik Laine scored late in the first period for the Jets.
ISLANDERS 4, PENGUINS 3: Josh Bailey scored on a rebound at 4:39 of overtime and host New York beat Pittsburgh in the opener of their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series.
Jordan Eberle had a goal and an assist, and Brock Nelson and Nick Leddy also scored for New York, which was opening a postseason series at home for the first time in 31 years.
Phil Kessel and Evgeni Malkin each had a goal and an assist, and Justin Schultz also scored for the Penguins.
NOTES
SLAVA VOYNOV is appealing the suspension imposed by the NHL after it determined he committed acts of domestic violence.
Jonathan Weatherdon, a spokesman for the NHL Players’ Association, said Wednesday that the organization had filed an appeal on behalf of Voynov. Players have the right to appeal suspensions to a neutral arbitrator, though a hearing date has not yet been set.
Commissioner Gary Bettman suspended Voynov on Tuesday for the 2019-20 season and 2020 playoffs for what the league called unacceptable off-ice conduct. The 29-year-old Russian could have his eligibility restored on July 1, 2020, based on good behavior.
Voynov was suspended indefinitely in October 2014 after being arrested and accused of abusing his wife. He pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor, left the United States to go back to Russia and in July had the conviction dismissed by a judge in Los Angeles. He has applied to be reinstated by the NHL.
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