Penguins up 3-0

Sidney Crosby, Jordan Staal and Marian Hossa scored in the third period to lift the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 4-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Monday night, taking a 3-0 lead in their first-round series.

Maxime Talbot scored in the second period and Hossa also had two assists to push his former team to the brink of elimination one year after beating Pittsburgh in five games on its way to the Stanley Cup finals.

Game 4 is Wednesday night at Scotiabank Place in Ottawa.

Crosby got the tiebreaking goal 12 seconds into the third, stunning the Senators’ crowd with his first goal of the playoffs after busting in on a 2-on-1 break and snapping a shot that beat Martin Gerber stick side.

Staal made it 3-1 just 1:18 later, crashing the net and redirecting a Kristopher Letang pass behind a helpless Gerber. Hossa capped the comeback with a power-play goal at 8:55.

Ottawa couldn’t capitalize on the return of injured captain Daniel Alfredsson, a surprise addition, who hadn’t played since April 3.

Predators 5, Red Wings 3: At Nashville, Jason Arnott scored with 3:58 left in the final period, the second Nashville goal in 9 seconds, and the Predators rallied to beat Detroit to get back into the first-round series.

Ryan Suter tied the game just 9 seconds earlier, putting a slap shot from the left side past Dominik Hasek, who had dominated the Predators for most of the game and the series. Martin Erat scored an empty-netter with 41 seconds left to seal the come-from-behind win.

Nashville, which trails 2-1, will look to tie the series in Game 4 on Wednesday night, and the series will then shift back to Detroit on Friday.

After managing only three goals against Hasek through the first two games of the series, the Predators came out shooting early and often against the 43-year-old goaltender. And the strategy paid off.

Nashville outshot Detroit 29-26 and scored two more goals than it had in the first two games combined, avoiding a 0-3 hole that only two teams in NHL history have ever come back from.

Wild 3, Avalanche 2 (OT): At Denver, Minnesota and Colorado are so evenly matched neither team can win in regulation.

Pierre-Marc Bouchard took a pass from Brian Rolston from behind the net and sent it past Jose Theodore 11:58 into overtime to give the Wild the win over the Avalanche.

It was the third straight overtime game in this first-round series, with the Wild winning two of them.