Penguins 4, Canadiens 3 (SO)
PITTSBURGH -- Sidney Crosby and David Perron scored on Pittsburgh's only attempts in a shootout, and the Penguins won their 10th in 12 games by rallying to beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 Wednesday night at the Consol Energy Center.
The Penguins, down 3-2 after being outshot 13-1 during a two-goal Montreal second period, won after trailing following two periods for the first time since Jan. 5, 2014.
Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury made 32 saves to continue the best start of his career, and deal the NHL-leading Canadiens (13-2-2) only their fourth loss. Fleury turned aside both of Montreal's skaters in the shootout -- center Alex Galchenyuk and center David Desharnais.
Pittsburgh right winger Patric Hornqvist beat goalie Mike Condon under the crossbar with 6:25 remaining in regulation to tie it at 3-3 -- a goal created when Crosby kept control of the puck by taking it between his legs before feeding Hornqvist.
Pittsburgh went on the power play with 2:17 remaining in the third period, and again with 2:26 left in the overtime after a Montreal too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty but couldn't score either time. The Penguins were 0-for-4 with the man advantage.
Montreal had won four of its previous five, but Condon (6-0-2) -- filling in for the injured Carey Price -- failed to win for only the second time in eight starts despite stopping 31 shots.
The Canadiens, down 2-1 after the Penguins scored in the first and last minutes of the first period, came back to take a 3-2 lead on goals by first-line right winger Brendan Gallagher and fourth-line right winger Brian Flynn less than seven minutes apart in the second period. Left winger Max Pacioretty assisted on both.
Gallagher took Pacioretty's breakout pass from the Montreal end at the blue line -- after it deflected off Penguins defenseman Ian Cole's skate -- and broke in hard from the left circle to beat Fleury for his seventh of the season at 7:47.
Flynn got his second with a wrist shot from the right circle that deflected off Fleury's chest and into the net at 14:12. Fleury needed stitches after catching teammate Ben Lovejoy's stick in the face during the first period, but returned after being off the ice less than two minutes.
The Penguins, playing at home for the first time in nearly two weeks, scored just 13 seconds into the game when left winger Pascal Dupuis, stationed at the left post, deflected Crosby's shot from the edge of the right circle.
Dupuis returned after missing two games on Pittsburgh's western Canada trip last week for precautionary reasons. Dupuis sat out five months of last season with blood clots.
The Canadiens tied it just slightly less than four minutes later on defenseman Andrei Markov's knuckling one-timer from beyond the right circle.
Pittsburgh went ahead 2-1 with 54 seconds left in the first as defenseman Olli Maatta had right winger Phil Kessel's wrist shot from the above the circles deflect off his leg and in.
NOTES: Canadiens G Carey Price (lower body) is expected to be out another week after getting a second opinion Monday in New York. ... Canadiens RW Alexander Semin was a healthy scratch for the seventh consecutive game. Also scratched were D Greg Pateryn and D Jarred Tinordi. ... Penguins RW Pascal Dupuis returned after missing two games for precautionary reasons that caused him to go to an Edmonton hospital last weekend. He sat out the final five months of the 2014-15 season with blood clots. ... RW Beau Bennett became the third winger to start on C Sidney Crosby's right side, following RW Phil Kessel and RW Patric Hornqvist. Hornqvist is now on C Nick Bonino's third line ... Pittsburgh scratched D Adam Clendening and LW Sergei Plotnikov.