The Nashville Predators took three penalties in less than four minutes in the third period during their Game 3 loss to the Winnipeg Jets, and expressed their frustration with officiating afterwards.

The Predators blew a three-goal lead in the loss and took the string of penalties shortly after tying the game 4-4 in the third period.

Nashville managed to kill off Kevin Fiala’s tripping call with just over eight minutes left in the period, but P.K. Subban took a high-sticking penalty just seconds after Fiala’s penalty expired, leading to Blake Wheeler's game-winning goal on the power play.

Subban couldn't argue that the penalty was unfair, but said the Jets were getting away with plenty of things after the whistle that could have been called.

"Well, you know, I went to put my stick on [Nik Ehlers’] stick, I think it rode up his stick and hit him in the face,” Subban told the Tennessean of the high-sticking call. “I don’t know. You guys saw the replay. I didn’t see it. Is that what happened? Yeah, so I put it on his stick and it just rode up and it was a bad bounce and, you’ve got to stay out of the box. But that’s a tough break.

“But I think there’s some frustration on our side when things happen on the ice and they get one, two, three, four, five different shots at guys after the whistle and stuff like that. Poke at our goaltender. That’s not the reason that we lost, but those things can be frustrating. And then they called two penalties at the end on us. But we have to be better-disciplined.”

Just 30 seconds after Wheeler scored to give Winnipeg the lead, Pekka Rinne took a slashing call put the Predators down a man once again, limiting their chances of a comeback.

“That wasn’t smart,” Rinne said of his slash on Adam Lowry. “At that point of the game, bad penalty. It’s just emotions got the best of me. When you look at the replay, it’s just a tap on the back. I don’t know. I’ll leave it at that.”

Subban, appearing to contradict himself, insinuated that the referees were biased in favour of the Jets. 

“I mean, I’m not going to comment on the officiating,” Subban said, “but I’m standing at the faceoff, I get a shot in the back of the head five times or a shot in the shoulder and I’ve just got my stick on the ice. You know, I wonder if I do that, what happens? If I give [Mark] Scheifele a couple shots like that, I don’t know.”

Predators head coach Peter Laviolette declined to enter the fray after Game 3, stating simply "it's over" and his team must move on. He was visibly upset after Ryan Ellis was taken down in the second period leading to Dustin Byfuglien's second goal of the game. 

In the end, the Predators were called for seven penalties (five in the third period) compared to six on the Jets. Game 4 will take place Thursday in Winnipeg.