Jets streak past Nashville for 7-4 in Game 3, lead series, 2-1

What do you do when you are down 3-0 in Game 3 and have 40 minutes of hockey to play out?

If you are the Winnipeg Jets, you outscore your opponent, 6-1, over those minutes and win the game. Simple.

“We got kicked in the teeth a little bit in the first, and our team has always responded well this year, the Jets’ Blake whether it be a bad game or a bad period,” Wheeler said. “Our goal was just to win the second period and give ourselves a chance.”

Wheeler scored the go-ahead goal with just under five minutes left in regulation as the Jets rallied for a 7-4 win over the Nashville Predators.

The Predators built the three-goal lead on strikes by P.K. Subban, Mike Fisher and Austin Watson.

“We stopped playing,” Ryan Ellis said. “We didn’t play hard, and they really turned it up. So that’s exactly what’s going to happen when one team quits playing and the other one turns it up. For us, I think we just need to learn from our mistakes, and really it’s just about playing the game for the full 60 (minutes).”

From that point, the Jets rallied with four goals in the second period to take a 4-3 lead before Filip Forsberg knotted it up in the third.

“I think in the second period we wanted to do the right things with the puck, but we didn’t take care of the puck good enough. We didn’t get pucks past their D, we didn’t get it in deep, and, you know, in the playoffs it doesn’t matter what your system is, you’ve got to get pucks in and forecheck hard,” Subban said after the loss.

Connor Hellebuyck made 26 saves to pick up the win.

Dustin Byfuglien struck twice for the Jets and Paul Stastny and Jacob Trouba added single markers.

“You’re down 3-0, it’s not a big deal for this team because just the way we feed off the crowd, just the way we can roll line after line after line,” Stastny said. “I thought the two biggest things we did was putting [Kyle] Connor on our line and [Nikolaj] Ehlers [on Mark Scheifele], kind of switching them [in the first period]. I thought both those guys were unbelievable.”

Byfuglien bookended the four-goal outburst in the second period.

“Well, what makes him unique is he can — I don’t know if take over is right — but he can make an impact in a game in just about every single way possible,” Jets head coach Paul Maurice said. “He can defend, he can play real physical, nobody wants to drop the gloves with him. And then there’s an offensive side. It’s a perfectly placed shot, quick hands, all the other things that he can do offensively.”

Wheeler added an empty net goal for his second of the night and Brandon Tanev potted an empty-netter late to seal it.

[WATCH: All Predators vs. Jets highlights | Complete Predators vs. Jets series coverage]

Pekka Rinne made 38 saves in taking the loss.

“We stopped moving our legs,” Predators forward Ryan Johansen said. “We did a lot of things poorly, and they got better. Momentum swings in playoffs, they can be deadly.”