Lightning 2, Blue Jackets 1

Andrei Vasilevskiy had 28 saves and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 2-1 on Monday to take a 3-1 lead in their Eastern Conference playoff series.

Barclay Goodrow and Yanni Gourde each had a goal and an assist as the Lightning pushed the Blue Jackets to the verge of elimination after being swept by Columbus in the first round of the 2019 playoffs.

Game 5 is Wednesday.

Cam Atkinson scored for Columbus, and Joonas Korpisalo had 20 saves.

The Blue Jackets seemed to have recharged after running out of gas in the Game 3 loss. They got the first goal early in the first period, but it was waved off because Alexandre Texier was offside entering the zone.

Then the Lightning scored twice in the first five minutes of the second period.

They opened the scoring 16 seconds into the second when Goodrow chopped at the puck in traffic in front of Korpisalo and popped it over his blocker.

Gourde made it 2-0 by redirecting a long shot by Kevin Shattenkirk at the 4:09 mark.

Less than two minutes later, Atkinson got credit for the Columbus goal when a long shot by Pierre-Luc Dubois pinballed between Atkinson and the goalie before going into the net. Vasilevskiy argued for goalie interference to no avail.

Columbus took a penalty for too many men on the ice with 1:07 left in the game, which interrupted its late 6-on-5 push.

Tampa Bay is 0 for 9 on power plays in the series while Columbus is 2 for 14.

Atkinson returned after being classified “unfit to play” in the past two games. Emil Bemstrom was a scratch.

F Kevin Stenlund made his playoff debut for the Blue Jackets and skated in the top power-play group.

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DAN HAMILTON/USA TODAY SPORTS Lightning left wing Ondrej Palat (18) battles against Blue Jackets goaltender Joonas Korpisalo (70) in the first period of Game 4 on Monday.