Joe Thornton returned to San Jose's lineup for Game 3 against the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday, skating in his first game of the postseason.

Thornton suffered a lower-body injury April 2 versus the Vancouver Canucks. The ailment kept him out of the lineup for the final three games of the regular season, along with the first two games of the opening round against the Oilers.

The series sits deadlocked after the first two games. San Jose took the opener with a 3-2 overtime victory, before the Oilers grabbed a 2-0 decision in the second game.

Thornton appeared in 79 games for the Sharks this season, tallying seven goals and 43 assists.

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Keeping one's head in the game is paramount in the playoffs.

Marc-Andre Fleury used his mask to rob Brandon Dubinsky of a potential overtime winner in Game 3 of the first-round playoff series between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday night.

The importance of Fleury's improbable heads-up play was made even more evident when Penguins forward Jake Guentzel potted the winner about five minutes later.

Pittsburgh took a 3-0 series lead, with Game 4 scheduled for Tuesday night.

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Alexander Radulov found his inner Peter Forsberg.

The Montreal Canadiens winger mimed the former NHL superstar on Sunday, burying a one-handed tally by New York Rangers netminder Henrik Lundqvist.

Radulov leads the Canadiens in playoff scoring with five points in three games.

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Overtime winner. Hat trick. Commanding series lead.

Jake Guentzel checked off all of those boxes in a single stroke, taking a feed from Sidney Crosby and burying the winner in the extra frame to give the Pittsburgh Penguins a 5-4 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets in Game 3 on Sunday night.

The Penguins took a 3-0 advantage in the first-round matchup with the victory.

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Tic, tac, toe to Artturi.

Montreal Canadiens rookie forward Artturi Lehkonen gave his team the lead Sunday against the New York Rangers, finishing off a pretty passing play to pocket his first goal of the postseason.

Tomas Plekanec and Brendan Gallagher drew the assists on Lehkonen's tally.

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Bryan Rust tied Sunday's Game 3 between his Pittsburgh Penguins and the Columbus Blue Jackets with his second goal of the night, but the equalizer wasn't without concern or controversy.

The goal came about 10 seconds after Columbus defenseman Zach Werenski was cut badly after taking a Phil Kessel shot under his visor.

Play continued as Werenski laid on the ice after absorbing the blow. He left the ice bleeding profusely into a towel as the Penguins were celebrating their goal late in the second period.

He returned in the third wearing a full cage and looking like this:

As far as whether the goal should have counted, NHL on-site officiating supervisor Don Koharski declined to say if allowing play to continue was the correct call, accor

The 19-year-old rookie scored his first career playoff goal in the opening frame.

(Video courtesy: NHL.com)

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The Minnesota Wild are learning the hard way that a hot goalie can steal a series.

One of the top teams through the regular season, including a win streak that saw the team string together 12 straight victories, things haven't run so hot for the Wild in the opening round of the playoffs.

Now down 3-0 to the St. Louis Blues, the Wild have been regularly stymied by Blues netminder Jake Allen, who turned aside 40 shots in Sunday's 3-1 loss. He has allowed just three goals in the series, stopping 114 of the 117 pucks directed toward the St. Louis net.

Wild defenseman Ryan Suter voiced his frustration over his team's inability to regularly put the puck by Allen, telling Michael Russo of the Star Tribute, "We're not playing bad. We just can't score. If we can find a way to score a goal, it's a different game."

Minnesota bench boss Bruce Boudreau agreed with Suter's stance.

"If you're looking for me to criticize our team, it's not going to happen," Boudreau told reporters. "We were friggin' good tonight. We didn't get the breaks, so quit trying to put words in our mouths that make us look like we're bad, because we're not.

"These guys are trying right to the end. They want to win as bad as everybody. They want to bring it home to Minnesota. Right now, it's not working."

The Wild have outshot the Blues throughout the series, 117-78.

Boudreau noted the team's mindset will be to look at Wednesday's contest as a Game 7, as St. Louis now has a stranglehold on the series and another win marks the decisive victory for the Blues.

Four teams have come back from 3-0 series deficits in NHL history, with the most recent coming in 2014, when the Los Angeles Kings stormed back in epic fashion against the San Jose Sharks.

"It's possible. It's been done. It doesn't happen very often, but when you have three games that were as close as ours, it doesn't take a lot to turn it over," Boudreau added. "Our whole goal is just to win Wednesday and we'll be happy for a day."

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There's a reason the St. Louis Blues are staked to a commanding 3-0 series lead over the Minnesota Wild, and it's not the offense.

The Blues have mustered only seven goals in their three first-round playoff games - one of which landed in an empty net Sunday - but it's Jake Allen who deserves the bulk of the credit for putting the Wild's season on the brink.

Allen has stopped 114 of 117 shots in the series so far.

The 26-year-old netminder clearly hasn't been bothered by the heavy workload he's seen in two of the three contests.

"It doesn't matter to me, obviously the more shots the tougher it is, but it doesn't faze me," Allen told FOX Sports Midwest postgame Sunday.

Allen and the Blues will get their first crack at eliminating the Wild on home ice in Game 4 on Wednesday night.

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ST. LOUIS - Jaden Schwartz scored the go-ahead goal in the second period and Jake Allen made 40 saves to lead the St. Louis Blues to a 3-1 win over the Minnesota Wild on Sunday for a 3-0 lead in their first-round playoff series.

Colton Parayko also scored for the Blues and Alexander Steen added an empty-netter for St. Louis, which will try to sweep the series Wednesday night in St. Louis.

Charlie Coyle scored for Minnesota, which got 28 saves from Devan Dubnyk.

Schwartz had a power-play goal at 15:19 of the second period to put the Blues one win away from the second round. He scored with 2:27 left in the third period of Game 2 to give St. Louis the 2-1 win.

Allen was the star of the first two games. He stopped 74 of 76 shots for a .974 save percentage against a Wild team that ranked second in the NHL in scoring during the regular season.

The Blues scored just 3:25 into the first period when Parayko beat Dubnyk high with a shot from the high slot after a nice pass from Patrik Berglund. The goal was the third in 23 playoff games for Parayko, who scored four goals in 81 games this season.

St. Louis out-shot Minnesota 15-9 in the first period, but couldn't build on its early lead. Vladimir Tarasenko and Steen both hit the post.

Minnesota tied it with a goal from Coyle with 7:01 left in the second period. Coyle scored off a rebound of a shot from Zach Parise, giving the Wild their first even-strength goal of the series and Parise his third point in three games.

The Blues scored their first power-play goal of the series from Schwartz with 4:41 remaining in the second period. Schwartz, who took a high stick from Ryan White to earn the penalty, scored his second goal of the series off a pass from Steen behind the net.

Minnesota put 19 shots on goal in the third period, but couldn't beat Allen.

The Wild pulled Dubnyk for an extra attacker with 2:10 remaining and Steen scored his first of the playoffs, assisted by Berglund and Vladimir Sobotka, into the empty net with 1:11 left.

NOTES: The Wild made two lineup changes for Game 3. D Christian Folin was scratched in favor of D Nate Prosser. Folin was minus-2 in the first two games of the series. RW Ryan White made his Wild playoff debut in place of rookie Joel Eriksson Ek. ... Blues C Jori Lehtera was a healthy scratch for the second consecutive game.

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Cam Atkinson wasted little time.

The Columbus Blue Jackets forward put his team on the board just 11 seconds into Game 3 of its opening-round series versus the Pittsburgh Penguins, banging in the rebound after netminder Marc-Andre Fleury turned aside the initial shot from Brandon Dubinsky.

Pittsburgh carried a 2-0 series lead into Sunday's contest.

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