Montreal Canadiens' Tomas Plekanec, of the Czech Republic, tips the puck into the net for a goal behind Philadelphia Flyers' Ray Emery during the third period of an NHL hockey game, Saturday, Oct. 11, 2014, in Philadelphia. The Canadians won 4-3 in a shootout.Chris Szagola/The Associated Press
Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau scored in the shootout, and the Montreal Canadiens rallied from a three-goal deficit to beat the winless Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 on Saturday night.
Parenteau was the fourth Canadien to go in the shootout against Ray Emery and the first to score.
The Canadiens really won this game with a dominant third when they scored three times to send it to OT. Andrei Markov, Tomas Plekanec and Alex Galchenyuk all had goals to keep the Canadiens (3-0) perfect this season.
The Flyers are winless through three games for the third straight season. They fired coach Peter Laviolette after three games last season and replaced him with Craig Berube. Berube certainly wasn't on the hot seat this season, though the Flyers held a team meeting on their off day Friday.
Wayne Simmonds scored twice and Mark Raffl had a goal for the Flyers.
The Canadiens controlled the third after a listless first two periods to stun the Flyers. The Canadiens outshot the Flyers 14-2 during their game-changing run in the third, getting goals from Markov and Plekanec to cut the lead to 3-2.
Emery was on his knees after turning away one shot, but Plekanec pounced on the puck and scored to make it 3-2.
Galchenyuk tipped in Plekanec's shot with 5:20 left in regulation to tie it at 3-all.
The Canadiens outshot the Flyers 19-4 in the third. The Flyers are in serious trouble this season on the blue line with injuries sidelining Braydon Coburn and Kimmo Timonen.
The Flyers struggled in their first two games, never holding a lead and already facing questions about staving off a similar winless funk to last season.
They eventually fell to 1-7 before a strong rebound earned them a spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
With no desire to keep the losses mounting, the Flyers regrouped with a meeting on Friday. Berube told his team to focus on playing the right way and tune out critics.
Of course, scoring two goals in the first 4 minutes of the game had to help.
Raffl's backhander beat Carey Price and opened the scoring at the 3:39 mark. Simmonds, who picked up where he left off with a hot end to last season, followed with a goal just 18 seconds later for a 2-0 lead.
Simmonds pounded in Vinny Lecavalier's rebound in the second to make it 3-0.
Simmonds scored twice in 57 seconds in the home opener on Thursday. He's been on a bit of a hot streak at home, dating to the 2014 post-season. He scored three goals against the New York Rangers in Game 6 of a first-round Eastern Conference playoff game.
Simmonds was scoreless in his first seven games last season, but has quickly become this season's top scoring threat.
Notes: Flyers general manager Ron Hextall was pleased former All-Star defenceman Chris Pronger joined the NHL's department of player safety. Pronger hasn't technically retired. The former NHL MVP is still being paid by the Philadelphia Flyers through 2017, even though he hasn't played in the league since 2011 due to concussions and an eye injury. Pronger, who ran afoul of the office many times during his bruising career, will not be involved in any decisions involving the Flyers. "He's been the guy probably on both sides of it and he's got a lot of experience from that," Hextall said. "I don't think that makes you worse at the job. In fact, I think it makes you better at the job. So I don't see that as a detriment."