Cool and calm Jets rebound from 3 down

WINNIPEG, Canada — Down 3-0 after a disastrous opening 20 minutes on Tuesday, there was no flipping of tables or peeling of paint off the walls in the Winnipeg Jets’ locker room.

Instead, Canada’s last hope in these Stanley Cup playoffs spent the first intermission calmly trying to figure a way out of that deficit.

“We got kicked in the teeth a little bit,” Jets captain Blake Wheeler said.

“Our goal was just to win the second period and give ourselves a chance.”

They did that — whole lot more.

Winnipeg dug itself out of a deep hole to stun the Nashville Predators 7-4 and grab a 2-1 lead in their Western Conference semifinal.

“It’s definitely not how you draw up a first period, but nobody panicked,” said Jets defenseman Jacob Trouba, who finished with a goal and an assist.

“We just regrouped. It wasn’t really any different in here than if it was a tie game or if we were winning.

“We just went out there and played a little bit faster and played with a little bit more confidence.”

Dustin Byfuglien had two goals and an assist for Winnipeg, and Paul Stastny added a goal and two assists. and a

Wheeler, who also had an assist, scored the first of two empty-net goals in the final minute, with Brandon Tanev getting the other.

Mark Scheifele added two assists to become the first player since Sidney Crosby in 2010 to have five consecutive multi-point games in the postseason.

Connor Hellebuyck made 26 stops in the Winnipeg net.

Filip Forsberg and PK Subban each had a goal and an assist for Nashville, while Mike Fisher and Austin Watson also scored.

Mattias Ekholm and Ryan Johansen both added two assists for the Predators, who got 38 saves from Pekka Rinne.

“We just stopped skating,” Nashville defenseman Ryan Ellis said. “You can’t win hockey when you stop skating and stop playing.”

Johansen said the Predators stopped skating after blowing the lead.

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

Game 4 is on Thursday night in Winnipeg before the series shifts back to Nashville for Game 5 on Saturday.