TAMPA, Fla. — Matthew Tkachuk got the puck in the slot early in the second period. He weaved and bobbed with the puck on his stick, trying to fake out Andrei Vasilevskiy before finally slipping a low wrist shot past the star goaltender for a power-play goal.

Tkachuk skated toward the bench, looked back to his teammates and raised his arms in the air as they mobbed him in celebration.

Finally, at long last, Tkachuk is back, and he made his presence known in the Florida Panthers’ 6-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday in Game 1 of the opening-round playoff series at Tampa’s Amalie Arena to begin their Stanley Cup title defense.

Tkachuk, playing in his first game for the Panthers since Feb. 8 after sustaining an apparent groin injury during the 4 Nations Face-Off, added a second power-play goal later in the period and an assist in the third period for his fourth three-point playoff game with the Panthers.

Tkachuk is the second player in Panthers history to have multiple power-play goals in one period in a playoff game. Sam Reinhart did it in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference final last year against the Rangers.

Tuesday was also Tkachuk’s second playoff game with multiple power-play goals in the playoffs with Florida. He had two in Game 4 of the 2023 Eastern Conference final against the Hurricanes — with the second of those goals being the game-winner and series clincher with 5 seconds left in regulation.

But the star winger’s impact was made long before he found the back of the net. He brought the physicality early and gave an emotional spark to his team that had waited more than two months for his return.

The offensive pop was a bonus.

Sam Bennett, Reinhart and Nate Schmidt each scored goals prior to Tkachuk’s power-play-scoring flurry. Schmidt added a second goal on the power play in the third period.

Florida’s six goals came on just 16 shots against Vasilevskiy.

Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 20 of 22 shots he faced, giving up a power-play goal to Jake Guentzel in the first period and a Brayden Point one-timer in the second.

It was the all-around type of performance that has become commonplace for this Panthers team — and a glimpse of what this team can do now as the roster continues to get to full strength.

The team has not fielded its full roster since the trade deadline, when Florida acquired the likes of Brad Marchand, Seth Jones and Nico Sturm to bolster an already deep roster for another deep playoff run.

Tkachuk had already been sidelined for close to a month at that point. Top-pairing defenseman Aaron Ekblad was hit with a 20-game suspension on March 10 that will keep him out until Game 3 of the first-round series. After the Panthers secured their playoff spot, coach Paul Maurice used the final stretch of the season to rest players, particularly those who had been part of both of the Panthers’ runs to the Stanley Cup Final the past two years and had logged close to 300 games over the past three seasons.

The potential of what this team could be was seen in spurts, but never all at once. A lot was still hypothetical, imagined and hopeful about what could be.

It’s now coming together as the playoffs begin.

Tuesday, with Tkachuk leading the way, was a resounding way to show what this team can do if this level of performance can be sustained.

Game 2 of the best-of-7 series is at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

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