Blue Jackets, Lightning tied 1-1 heading into game 3
Tampa Bay Lightning (43-21-6, second in the Atlantic Division during the regular season) vs. Columbus Blue Jackets (33-22-15, sixth in the Metropolitan Division during the regular season)
Toronto; Saturday, 7:30 p.m. EDT
EASTERN CONFERENCE FIRST ROUND: Series tied 1-1
BOTTOM LINE: The Columbus Blue Jackets take on the Tampa Bay Lightning in game three of the Eastern Conference first round with the series tied 1-1. The teams meet Saturday for the fourth time this season. The Blue Jackets won the last meeting 3-1.
The Blue Jackets are 23-9-10 against Eastern Conference opponents. Columbus averages only 2.9 penalties per game, the fewest in the Eastern Conference. Pierre-Luc Dubois leads the team averaging 0.3.
The Lightning are 28-12-3 in conference play. Tampa Bay averages 10.3 penalty minutes per game, the third-most in the NHL. Patrick Maroon leads the team serving 71 total minutes.
TOP PERFORMERS: Oliver Bjorkstrand leads the Blue Jackets with 21 goals and has 36 points. Dubois has four goals and six assists over the last 10 games for Columbus.
Brayden Point leads the Lightning with a plus-28 in 66 games this season. Nikita Kucherov has four goals and six assists over the last 10 games for Tampa Bay.
DURING THE PLAYOFFS: Blue Jackets: Averaging 2.4 goals, 3.4 assists, 3.1 penalties and 6.7 penalty minutes while giving up 2.0 goals per game with a .955 save percentage.
Lightning: Averaging 2.0 goals, 3.8 assists, 5.2 penalties and 11.6 penalty minutes while giving up 2.6 goals per game with a .931 save percentage.
INJURIES: Blue Jackets: Cam Atkinson: out (undisclosed), Nathan Gerbe: out (undisclosed).
Lightning: Steven Stamkos: out (lower body).
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.