By Canadian Press

Lightning beat Blue Jackets to take 2-1 series lead

Aug 15, 2020 | 8:33 PM

TORONTO — Andrei Vasilevskiy made 16 saves and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-2 on Saturday night to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven playoff series.

Alex Killorn, Brayden Point and Victor Hedman scored, and the Lightning held off a 6-on-5 push by the Blue Jackets late.

Game 4 is Monday.

Riley Nash and Eric Robinson scored for the Blue Jackets, and Joonas Korpisalo made 31 stops after piling up 121 saves in the first two games of the series, including a five-overtime loss Tuesday night.

After the Blue Jackets came up empty on over a minute of a 5-one-3 advantage, Killhorn made it 1-0 for the Lightning with 4:12 left in the first period when he dragged the puck around diving Columbus defenceman David Savard and beat Korpisalo between the pads.

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Nash got his first goal of the playoffs to tie it early in the second. He took a feed from Gus Nyquist just below the blue line and rifled a shot from the left circle over Vasilevskiy’s glove.

Point put the Lightning up again with 5:44 left in the second when he put back a shot that had bounced off Korpisalo. Hedman got his first goal of the playoffs and pushed the Tampa Bay lead to 3-1 with 1:07 left in the period.

Columbus got back within one early in the third period when rookie Robinson followed his own rebounded shot and beat Vasilevskiy.

The Lightning outshot Columbus 34-17, including 16-4 in the second period.

NOTES: Columbus forwards Cam Atkinson and Nathan Gerbe were listed as unfit to play. … Entering the game, Tampa Bay led the NHL for shots per game (42.4) and shot attempt percentage (59.5%) in the 2020 playoffs. … Point has seven points in six playoff games.

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The Associated Press