Nobody needed to remind the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday that only four teams in NHL history have won a playoff series after losing the first three games.

In the locker room at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry, the players were keenly aware of what is at stake Sunday. Defeat the upstart New York Islanders for the first time in this first-round playoff series or deal with the unseemly prospect of a 3-0 series deficit.

After losing back-to-back games on Long Island, the Penguins are hoping a change of scenery will change the result when Game 3 is contested Sunday at noon inside PPG Paints Arena.

“I think our mindset has got to be to go in with the urgency and desperation to get a win,” captain Sidney Crosby said after a crisp 20-minute practice. “Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get one there, but we’re coming back home, and it’s a big game.”

Is it ever. The Penguins haven’t faced a 2-0 deficit in a playoff series since the 2013 Eastern Conference final against the Boston Bruins, who finished off the Penguins with a sweep. In 2012, the Penguins lost a first-round series against the Philadelphia Flyers in six games after starting in a 2-0 hole.

It was 10 years ago the Penguins bucked a 2-0 deficit and won a playoff series. In fact, they did it twice — against the Washington Capitals in the second round and against the Detroit Red Wings in the Stanley Cup Final.

Defenseman Kris Letang took a pragmatic approach to the Penguins’ predicament.

“If they can win two in a row,” he said, “we can do the same.” “I don’t think there is any doubt in our mind that we are going to lose all four. We are confident in our group. We are coming into our building and going to try to set the tone our way.”

Perhaps the quick turnaround will work in the Penguins favor, given they will have less time to dwell on their consecutive losses than if the puck were dropped for Game 3 at, say, 7:30 p.m.

“Whether it’s at noon or 8 or two days later, you’ve got to move by games and learn from them,” Crosby said. “It doesn’t matter what time the game is. You have to be ready for the next one.”

The Penguins would like to get off to a quick start, something they failed to do in the first two games when they scored just once in the first period and held a lead for less than three minutes total during the 4-3 (OT) and 3-1 losses.

“We just need to do what we need to do to give ourselves the best chance to win,” goalie Matt Murray said. “I don’t think anything changes.”

Coach Mike Sullivan made a switch to his top line in practice, replacing Bryan Rust with Dominik Simon. The pairing of Crosby, Jake Guentzel and Rust didn’t produce a point in either game, with the line generating a combined eight shots on goal.

In addition, Phil Kessel replaced Patric Hornqvist on Evgeni Malkin’s line, and Rust dropped to the third line.

Sullivan pointed to a statistical decline in possession time in the Islanders’ end as one reason for the lines shake-up.

“We can do a better job of hanging onto pucks,” Sullivan said. “There are ways we think we can help them strategically to help them have more success.”

Failure to achieve that success Sunday against the Islanders would put the Penguins on the brink of elimination. From a historical standpoint, they would have a 2% chance of winning the series.

Of the 188 times a team has fallen behind 3-0 in a playoff series, only the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs, 1975 Islanders (against the Penguins, no less), 2010 Flyers and 2014 Los Angeles Kings have bucked the longest of odds.

Not that the Penguins are thinking that far ahead. Of utmost importance is changing the mistakes Sunday that cost them in the first two games of the series.

“It’s all we can do, worry about tomorrow’s game,” Murray said. “And that’s what we are preparing for.”

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