SUNRISE — Jake Guentzel has provided a spark for Tampa Bay’s offense in its first-round series against the Panthers, and he kept the Lightning from falling into dire straits on Saturday.

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The veteran left-winger scored a key insurance goal and assisted another score to help push Tampa Bay past Florida 5-1 in Game 3 of the first round at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise on Saturday.

“Learned a lot from this game,” Florida captain Aleksander Barkov said. “Obviously, we had a great start, we did the right things. But they’re great team also, so they played really well and won the game today. All we’ve got to do from this game is learn.”

Matthew Tkachuk opened the scoring. Sam Bennett drove to the net and mistimed an attempted shot, but Tkachuk grabbed the loose puck and fired it to Andrei Vasilevskiy’s left for the game’s first goal. It was Tkachuk’s third goal of the series. But from there, it was all Lightning.

“I liked our start. I liked the pace of our game,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “I thought we stopped moving the puck as well as we can in close proximity, just some things that didn’t get connected. That’s not a hands thing for me. That’s more of an emotional thing. You start looking for something a little better in a slower game. I thought how we moved the puck slowed our game down.”

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Guentzel and Brayden Point tied the game for Tampa Bay late in the first period. Guentzel made his way around a couple of Panthers defenders, and his shot deflected off Point and past Sergei Bobrovsky.

After both teams missed numerous chances in the second period, winger Nick Paul gave Tampa Bay its first lead in the series with a goal that went under Bobrovsky’s left leg 13:17 into the second period.

Guentzel added his goal — his second of the series — early in the third period, one-timing a shot at close range to put the Lightning up 3-1. Tampa Bay added to its lead with a goal by Luke Glendening 14:19 into the final period, and Anthony Cirelli scored an empty-net goal.

Florida outshot Tampa Bay 34-22, but Vasilevskiy had his second straight one-goal game as the Panthers could not convert their chances.

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“He made a few good saves,” Maurice said. “I think we were just late on a bunch of releases. … That’s what both these teams will do.”

Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov returned after missing the end of Game 2 following a big hit from Tampa Bay’s Brandon Hagel. Hagel was out on Saturday after the NHL suspended him for one game for the hit.

Florida has a chance to go up 3-1 in Game 4 of the series on Monday night at 7 p.m.

“It’s going to be a huge game,” forward Eetu Luostarinen said. “Definitely going to be another good game ahead of us, and now just have to relax and focus on the next one.”