Matthew Tkachuk had two power-play goals and an assist in his first game after a two-month absence and the Florida Panthers opened defense of their Stanley Cup title with a 6-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night in the first game of the teams’ first-round playoff series at Tampa, Fla.

Nate Schmidt scored on a power play and finished with two goals, and Sam Bennett and Sam Reinhart each added a goal and an assist for the Panthers. Sergei Bobrovsky made 20 saves.

Jake Guentzel and Brayden Point scored for Tampa Bay. Andrei Vasilevskiy had 10 stops.

The Lightning played the final 33:30 without center Anthony Cirelli. There was no immediate word why the 27-year-old center was out.

The teams meet for Game 2 of the best-of-seven series on Thursday at Amalie Arena.

Tkachuk was playing for the first time in more than two months after dealing with a lower-body injury. He scored twice in the second period. Those two goals put Florida up 4-1 — the second goal for the Panthers in a 14-second span — and the next one pushing the lead to 5-1 midway through the second period.

Maple Leafs 3, Senators 2: Max Domi scored at 3:09 of overtime as Toronto survived a blown 2-0 lead to defeat visiting Ottawa to go up 2-0 in their first-round playoff series.

The winger moved into the offensive zone in the extra period and ripped his first of the post-season upstairs past Linus Ullmark.

John Tavares, with a goal and an assist, and Morgan Rielly provided the rest of the offense for Toronto. Anthony Stolarz made 26 saves.

Brady Tkachuk and Adam Gaudette scored for Ottawa. Ullmark stopped 18 shots.

The best-of-seven Battle of Ontario now shifts to the nation’s capital for Games 3 and 4 beginning Thursday at the Canadian Tire Centre.

Hurricanes 3, Devils 1: Jordan Martinook scored a go-ahead shorthanded goal in the second period and Frederik Andersen came up big in net all night to help Carolina beat visiting New Jersey for a 2-0 lead in their first-round playoff series.

Shayne Gostisbehere also scored in the second for Carolina, while Seth Jarvis added a clinching empty-net breakaway goal in the final minute. That was enough for the Hurricanes, who had a much tougher fight on their hands against the shorthanded Devils than in a Game 1 romp.

Andersen stood up for 25 saves and didn’t allow the Devils to find the back of the net for the final 56 minutes, including a big stop on a shot by Nathan Bastian with about six minutes left.