The league-best Tampa Bay Lightning are officially on the brink.

The Presidents' Trophy winners find themselves staring down a 3-0 deficit in their opening-round series against the Columbus Blue Jackets after dropping Game 3 by a score of 3-1. Despite this, Lightning head coach John Cooper sees a silver lining.

"There was a lot of positive energy in that room after the third period," Cooper said after the game, according to FOX Sports Florida. "Adversity hits in different ways and we haven't had a lot of it during the regular season and we have it now. We had adversity going into the third period and I thought we responded well and we've just got to carry that on.

"As far as I know, we're playing Tuesday, right? So, we're still alive."

After a lackluster opening 40 minutes, the Lightning outshot the Blue Jackets 17-8 in the third period. Team captain Steven Stamkos alluded to that as a possible turning point while preaching a one-game-at-a-time mentality.

"We pushed. We pushed hard. If anything, maybe we found a recipe to break some of their structure there," Stamkos said, according to Bryan Burns of the Lightning's official site. "Obviously, it wasn't good enough.

"We've got to win a game, just win a game, get it back to Tampa," he said. "It's tough right now, but we just have to find a way. There's nothing to save it for right now. We just have to win the next game and see where it takes us."

The Lightning - who tied the NHL record with 62 wins this season - are the first team to win the Presidents' Trophy and go down 3-0 in a first-round series since the Vancouver Canucks in 2012. Only four teams in history have recovered from such a deficit, with the last being the 2014 Los Angeles Kings, who went on to capture the Stanley Cup.

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ST. LOUIS (AP) Kyle Connor and the Winnipeg Jets got back on track by sticking to the same way they wanted to play all along.

Connor scored twice, Patrik Laine had a goal and an assist, and the Jets beat the St. Louis Blues 6-3 on Sunday night to climb back into their first-round playoff series.

Winnipeg dropped the first two games at home. But they were one-goal games, and Connor felt the Jets just needed a few minor tweaks.

Looked pretty good in St. Louis.

''As a whole, we played the right way for (the first) two games,'' Connor said. ''Tonight, it was nice to have everyone contribute.''

Kevin Hayes, Brandon Tanev and Dustin Byfuglien also scored for Winnipeg, and Connor Hellebuyck made 26 saves.

Game 4 of the best-of-seven series is Tuesday night in St. Louis.

''We're building every shift, every game throughout the series,'' Connor said. ''We're getting close to our game and it's pretty dangerous.''

David Perron, Vladimir Tarasenko and Alexander Steen scored for the Blues, and Jordan Binnington made 23 stops.

Perron put St. Louis in front with a power-play goal late in the first period. He whipped a shot past Hellebuyck from the slot.

But the Jets grabbed the lead for good when they scored three times in a span of 4:01 in the second.

Hayes started the blitz with a shot from the point that went through traffic before slipping past Binnington. Laine then scored his third goal of the series, converting a pass from Jacob Trouba.

Connor capped the blitz with a power-play wrist shot from the faceoff dot at 8:58. He added an insurance goal 14:44 into the final period.

''It was just a matter of time,'' Hayes said. ''It's a start.''

St. Louis had a chance in the third, pulling within one when Tarasenko scored a power-play goal just 1:51 into the period. But Tanev and Byfuglien responded for Winnipeg, running its lead back out to 5-2 with 11:54 left.

''Tonight was not really our team, obviously,'' Perron said ''We weren't happy with our effort. We didn't play a good game. But we've got to give them credit.''

Laine, who had 30 goals and 20 assists in the regular season, has scored in all three playoff games. He had just one goal in his last 19 regular-season games.

Laine scored five goals in an 8-4 win in St. Louis on Nov. 24, 2018.

''We just stayed within our game and tried to play it simple,'' Laine said. ''We got going and just tried to keep our foot on the gas the whole 60 (minutes).''

Hellebuyck made a big stop on Pat Maroon just seconds before Tanev's goal.

Binnington made a trio of saves in the opening 5:45 to keep the game scoreless. He denied Bryan Little, Hayes, and Mathieu Perrault. Binnington stopped 50 of 54 shots over the first two games.

''The biggest thing is we didn't play our game tonight,'' Tarasenko said. ''It was not our best game out there. It's on us, and we'll handle it tomorrow.''

NOTES: Blues D Robert Bortuzzo suffered a cut on his hand that required seven stitches in the third period of Game 2, but played on Sunday. ... Winnipeg is 1-10 in playoff games decided by one goal, including a 1-4 mark last season. ... The Blues failed on their first seven power-play attempts in the series prior to Perron's first-period goal. ... The Jets were the last team in the playoffs to record a third-period goal.

UP NEXT

Game 4 of the series is set for Tuesday night in St. Louis.

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Team Finland was victimized by a controversial call in the final of the Women's World Championship on Sunday.

The Finns thought they'd buried the winner against the United States in overtime, but officials handed U.S. goaltender Alex Rigsby a minor penalty for tripping, and what would have been the golden goal was disallowed.

A lengthy review came after the Finnish players had already celebrated.

The U.S. ultimately prevailed 2-1 in a shootout.

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Toronto Maple Leafs forward Nazem Kadri will have an in-person hearing on Monday for his hit on Boston Bruins forward Jake DeBrusk, the NHL Department of Player Safety announced.

He caught DeBrusk with a cross-check to the head late in Toronto's 4-1 loss.

Kadri received a three-game suspension almost a year ago to the day Sunday for boarding then-Bruins center Tommy Wingels during the two clubs' previous playoff matchup.

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The Vegas Golden Knights officially signed reigning KHL MVP Nikita Gusev to a one-year, entry-level deal, the club announced Sunday.

Gusev is expected to report to the Golden Knights and practice with the team on Monday.

The 26-year-old forward led the KHL with 82 points for SKA St. Petersburg in the regular season, adding 19 points in 18 playoff contests this spring. He also starred at the Olympics, racking up 12 points in six games to help the Olympic Athletes from Russia capture gold.

The Golden Knights acquired Gusev's rights from the Tampa Bay Lightning in a trade during the 2017 expansion draft.

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Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Dougie Hamilton and forward Micheal Ferland will not be disciplined further for their respective checks on Washington Capitals forwards Evgeny Kuznetsov and Nic Dowd, according to The Athletic's Chris Kuc.

Ferland was assessed a controversial match penalty in the second period of Game 2 on Saturday for a hit deemed to be delivered to Dowd's head.

Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind'Amour was furious in the immediate aftermath of the call and later questioned it on the NBC broadcast. Ferland said postgame he believed it was a clean hit and didn't think he should be suspended.

Dowd left the game but later returned.

Hamilton received a two-minute minor for elbowing Kuznetsov in the head in the second stanza.

The Capitals forward was also able to finish the contest and set up Brooks Orpik's overtime winner.

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Cale Makar is officially a member of the Colorado Avalanche.

The club has inked the University of Massachusetts standout to a three-year, entry-level contract. He'll join the Avalanche immediately for their playoff series against the Calgary Flames.

Makar captured the Hobey Baker Award as the top NCAA Division I men's hockey player and helped the Minutemen reach the Frozen Four championship game, which they lost to Minnesota Duluth on Saturday night.

He racked up 49 points in 41 games during his sophomore season.

The Avalanche selected the 20-year-old defenseman fourth overall in the 2017 draft.

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Hemmed in their own zone for minutes at a time, unable to complete simple passes over and over and over again, and generally looking ordinary most of the night, the Calgary Flames didn't deserve a win on Saturday.

Yet they only narrowly lost, dropping a 3-2 decision in overtime to the Colorado Avalanche. The Western Conference first-round series now shifts to Denver, tied 1-1. With Game 3 set for Monday, this is not how the NHL's second-best team drew it up.

The Avalanche are not world-beaters. The under-construction club might blossom into a dominant outfit in a few years, but right now it is essentially comprised of superstar Nathan MacKinnon (who scored the overtime winner), 87-point winger Mikko Rantanen, a handful of supporting pieces, and solid goalies. They are incomplete.

So while Calgary should - and still could - dispose of Colorado in short order, it's kind of complicated. The 2018-19 Flames, for better or for worse, seem to dine on three specific things. And when one, two, or all three of those things aren't clicking, the results can get ugly in a hurry.

The first thing: In order for the Flames to win meaningful hockey games, their goaltenders must provide stability. No issues in that department through two games. Mike Smith, who earned a shutout in Game 1 and has turned aside 62 of 65 total shots, appears up to the task.

The second: Calgary's team defense must protect its goalies from being overworked. No team limited opponents to fewer shots on goal in the regular season than the Flames. So far in the playoffs, there's been mixed results.

The third: The Flames' transition game must be humming. Nobody pushes the pace like Johnny Gaudreau and Co., but they've been uncharacteristically careless with the puck at various moments in this series.

All told, the Flames, though well-coached and well-built, have pressure points.

Their sloppiness was front and center Saturday. The official tally was 20 giveaways, but it sure felt like 30 or 40. Colorado was all over them. After two periods, according to the Sportsnet broadcast, the Avalanche had somewhere around eight minutes of offensive zone time versus about two minutes for Calgary.

The Flames were constantly chasing the puck. When they happened to come across a loose puck, they often failed to make crisp passes:

Transition offense is ultimately Calgary's bread and butter, so a constructive video session could probably fix any bad habits; strong neutral-zone play is a hallmark of this group is because the roster is perfectly suited to play an up-tempo brand of hockey.

Every forward in the Flames' top 12, aside from maybe James Neal and Garnet Hathaway, can really wheel around the rink. Versatile defenders like captain Mark Giordano and Noah Hanifin not only provide a reliable first pass, they join the rush too.

Smith, probably the league's best stickhandling goalie, is a huge contributor as well, often starting the breakout from behind the goal line:

The above clip is from Game 1. Just a few days ago. It's incredible how much can change over such a short period of time.

As this series chugs along, the Flames' pace of play - and goaltending - will dictate their future. The same can likely be said of Calgary's entire playoff run, however deep it may be. Better to stumble early against a lesser foe like the under-construction Avs.

John Matisz is theScore's National Hockey Writer. You can find him on Twitter @matiszjohn.

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