Canadiens 4, Penguins 3

The Montreal weren’t even supposed to be here.

All but eliminated from playoff contention, they’d shipped out key veterans at the trade deadline and were already focused on next season when COVID-19 forced the NHL to pause in mid-March.

The league’s 24-team restart gave Montreal a second life, and a roster not given much of a chance in this tournament is now one win from adding an incredible chapter to an unbelievable year.

Jeff Petry scored 5:33 into the third period as the Canadiens rallied from two goals down and beat Pittsburgh in Game 3 on Wednesday night, pushing the Penguins to the brink of elimination in the best-of-five series.

“We’ve just done it by working hard,” said Montreal coach Claude Julien, who shook up his lines in the second period with his team down 3-1. “At the end of the day, we know where the experience is. The only way we can counter that is with our work ethic and our commitment and desire.

“We lack experience compared to the other team, but we’re trying to make it up with our compete level.”

Shea Weber had a goal and two assists for Montreal, Paul Byron added a goal and an assist, and Jonathan Drouin also scored. Ben Chariot also had had assists.

Carey Price stopped 30 shots for the Canadiens — the 12th seed in the Eastern Conference as part of the NHL’s 24-team restart to its pandemic-delayed season. Montreal can advance to the normal first round with 16 teams with win in Game 4 on Friday.

Patric Hornqvist, Jason Zucker and Teddy Blueger scored for fifth-seeded Pittsburgh, which led 3-1 after Blueger's goal 5:34 into the second. Matt Murray finished with 27 saves.

“We just made a few mistakes,” Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said. “This time of year, those mistakes are magnified. They’re opportunistic. They’re waiting for those mistakes and they capitalized on them.

“We might have been guilty of getting a little too loose there with the lead, and that changed pretty quick.”

Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher suited up after briefly leaving the Penguins’ 3-1 victory in Game 2 but was clearly laboring at times with an undisclosed lower-body injury.

“As long as you can help the team, you’re going to be out there,” Gallagher said. “I would never put myself in a situation where I’m gonna hurt the team.”

Drouin pulled the Canadiens to 3-2 at 10:13 of the middle period when he redirected Chiarot’s point shot past Murray.

Byron tied it with 4:10 left in the period, just seconds after a penalty on Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin expired. Byron deftly moved Nick Suzuki’s rebound from his skate to his stick and sneaked a second-effort wraparound just over the goal line.

Joel Armia nearly gave Montreal the lead early in the third, but his one-timer pinballed around the crease during a power play. However, the Canadiens kept up the pressure, and Petry, who provided the overtime winner in Game 1, roofed a shot past Murray’s ear from a sharp angle for their second lead of the game.

“There’s no bad shot and at this time of the year,” Petry said. “I was able to pick my spot.”

The Penguins, who had the seventh-best record in the NHL when the season was suspended in mid-March, pushed as the period wore on, with Price denying Kris Letang down low.

Pittsburgh went on the power play with 3:32 left in regulation, but Price handled Sidney Crosby’s one-timer comfortably without giving up a rebound on the only shot against.

The Penguins pulled Murray and continued to press but weren’t able to get the equalizer.

Montreal jumped on the scoreboard first in front 4:57 into the game as Weber fired his third shot of a chaotic sequence by a down-and-out Murray.

With the Canadiens already down a man, Weber buried Hornqvist in the corner and was going to be assessed a penalty. Montreal’s captain seemed to be waiting for Malkin to give the puck away for a 5-on-3, but he instead whipped a cross-ice pass to Hornqvist, who made no mistake at 8:40.

Pittsburgh stayed on the power play with Weber now in the box, and Zucker made it 2-1 just 59 seconds later when Bryan Rust delivered a sneaky feed in the slot for the winger to rip a shot upstairs.

“You’re playing a team that knows exactly what to do to get back into a series,” Julien said of the Penguins, who won the Stanley Cup in both 2016 and 2017. “We’re aware of that, so we need to be playing our best game come Game 4. We’ve got to be ready.

“We can’t get overconfident, but we’ve got to have the confidence to be able to close it off.”

Blackhawks 4, Oilers 3

Matthew Highmore tied the score with 5:47 left in the third period, and Jonathan Toews got his second of the game 4 1/2 minutes later to give Chicago a win in Game 3 of the qualifying round series.

On the winner, Oilers defenseman Ethan Bear errantly tipped a Chicago point shot off Toews and past goalie Mikko Koskinen. It was Toews’ fourth goal of the series.

Olli Maatta also scored for the Blackhawks, and Corey Crawford finished with 25 saves.

Leon Draisaitl scored twice for Edmonton, and Connor McDavid got his fifth of the series to give the Oilers a 3-2 lead with 8 seconds left in the second period. Koskinen had 21 saves as Edmonton was pushed to the brink of elimination in the best-of-five series.

Coyotes 4, Predators 1

Conor Garland and Taylor Hall each scored in the third period to lead Arizona.

The Coyotes, seeded 11th in the West in the NHL’s restart, can eliminate the sixth-seeded Predators in Game 4 on Friday in this best-of-five qualifying series.

Christian Dvorak scored on Arizona’s first shot of the game, and Coyotes scored three in the third for the victory capped by Carl Soderberg’s empty-netter inside the final two minutes.

The Predators thought they had a 2-1 lead 1:13 into the third period on a goal by Kyle Turris, but the Coyotes won their challenge of offside with Nashville center Matt Duchene found over the blue line on review. Turris later hit the post with 6:19 left.

Garland put the Coyotes ahead to stay with his wrister from the slot at 7:08 of the third.

Darcy Kuemper made 39 saves for the victory in his third start in four games and second in two days.

Viktor Arvidsson scored Nashville’s lone goal, and Juuse Saros had 24 saves.

Avalanche 4, Stars 0

High-scoring 21-year-old rookie defenseman Cale Makar connected on an early power-play goal, 30-year-old Pavel Francouz recorded a shutout in his postseason debut and Colorado past Dallas in round-robin play.

Joonas Donskoi, Vladislav Namestnikov and Andre Burakovsky also scored as the Avalanche improved to 2-0 in the three-game round that will determine playoff seeding for the top four teams in the Western Conference. The Stars have lost both of their games and are likely to finish where they started as the fourth seed.

Donskoi scored 3 seconds after a power play ended in the first period, and Burakovsky connected early in the third period after Mattias Janmark was called for tripping late in the second.

Burakovsky’s shot hit the crossbar before deflecting off the back of Stars goalie Anton Khudobin into the net. Donskoi and Burakovsky had assists on the other’s goal.

Khudobin finished with 36 saves.