Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov Rally Lightning Past Hurricanes for Wild Game 4 Win

The Tampa Bay Lightning grabbed a commanding 3-1 series lead on the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs with a 6-4 win Saturday at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida.

The bulk of the action came in the second period as the two teams combined for eight goals, a stark contrast from the rest of their series.

The Hurricanes led 4-2 before the Lightning got three unanswered goals to close out the period. Steven Stamkos delivered what proved to be the decisive tally inside the final minute with his second of the game.

Nikita Kucherov continued his hot playoff run with an insurance goal at the 6:01 mark of the third period.

The Hurricanes can take some solace from the fact that seven teams since 2010 have come back after falling behind 3-1 in the postseason, and the Montreal Canadiens pulled it off against the Toronto Maple Leafs in this season's first round.

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Notable Performers

Nikita Kucherov, RW, Lightning: two goals, one assist, six shots, one hit

Steven Stamkos, C, Lightning: two goals, one assist, two shots

Jaccob Slavin, D, Hurricanes: one goal, one assist, one blocked shot, one hit

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Lightning Overcome Poor Game from Vasilevskiy

Even the best can experience a bad day at the office, and that's just what happened for Andrei Vasilevskiy.

The Vezina Trophy finalist was excellent in the first two games and struggled a bit more in Game 3. This proved to be one Vasilevskiy's worst showings in some time, as he allowed four goals on just 25 shots.

Luckily for the Lightning, the pair of Kucherov and Stamkos picked up the slack.

Kucherov didn't play at all during the regular season, while Stamkos was limited to 38 games. For Tampa Bay, simply getting to the postseason was the clear goal because the complexion of the team's attack would change dramatically once the puck dropped in the playoffs.

Assuming this was only a blip for Vasilevskiy, a second successive Stanley Cup triumph is looking like an attainable achievement for the Lightning. This squad is battle-tested and back to full health.

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Hurricanes Treat Fans to Roller-Coaster 2nd Period

Midway through the second period, Carolina was riding high. Teuvo Teravainen, Jesper Fast, Dougie Hamilton and Jaccob Slavin all scored to upend Game 4 and possibly the entire series.

The Hurricanes were up two goals with 7:19 left in the period.

Within five minutes, the Lightning had tied the score and didn't look back from there.

The goaltender is naturally going to come in for a lot of criticism when a team surrenders six goals over a regulation game. Petr Mrazek will want to have a short memory, especially since he and his teammates have no margin for error from here on out.

But blaming Mrazek solely for this defeat would be unfair considering three of Tampa Bay's goals came on the power play.

Allowing the Lightning to have a man advantage is a recipe for disaster with the rate at which their attack is finding the back of the net.

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What's Next?

The action will pick back up Tuesday at PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina.