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Carolina Hurricanes goaltender Petr Mrazek can’t stop a shot by Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov during Game 4 of their second-round playoff series Saturday in Tampa, Fla. Chris O’Meara/Associated Press

TAMPA, Fla. — Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos each had two goals and an assist, and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Carolina Hurricanes 6-4 on Saturday to open a commanding lead in their second-round playoff series.

The defending Stanley Cup champions improved to 10-0 in games following a playoff loss over the past two postseasons. They lead the Hurricanes 3-1 in the best-of-seven series heading into Game 5 on Tuesday night at Carolina.

Each team scored four goals in the second, with the Lightning turning a 4-2 deficit into a 5-4 lead. Stamkos and Kucherov scored on the power play and Tyler Johnson also beat Petr Mrazek in the final 5:22 of the period.

Teuvo Teravainen, Jesper Fast, Dougie Hamilton and Jaccob Slavin scored in the second for the Hurricanes, who hurt themselves by taking bad penalty after bad penalty while giving the Lightning five power-play opportunities in the second period.

Tampa Bay finished 3 of 6 on the power play. The Lightning have scored five times with the man advantage in the last two games.

Carolina had its highest scoring game of the series, but the Hurricanes were 0 for 2 on the power play and struggled after going up 4-2 on Slavin’s goal at 12:41 of the second.

Vezina Trophy finalist Andrei Vasilevskiy weathered the Hurricanes’ scoring barrage and didn’t allow another goal the rest of the way. He finished with 21 saves.

Kucherov, who has 17 points in 10 playoff games this year, began the comeback with a power-play goal. Johnson made it 4-4 before Stamkos netted his second power-play goal of the period.

Kucherov scored off a nice pass from Ondrej Palat for a 6-4 lead just over six minutes into the final period.


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