MONTREAL (AP) -- Even though it took a while, Carey Price and the
Montreal Canadiens finally got a shootout to go their way.



Tomas Plekanec scored on Montreal's eighth shootout attempt and
Price stopped six of eight in the tiebreaker to lead the
Canadiens to a 3-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on
Tuesday night.



Price, who recorded his third shutout in a 3-0 win over Winnipeg
on Sunday, denied Jason Williams on Pittsburgh's final shootout
attempt after making 32 saves during the game.



"Carey was great again tonight," said Plekanec, who snapped a
shot in off the post. "He gave us a chance to stay in the game
and he was great again in the shootout. We were able to pay him
back with that performance in the shootout."



Montreal won for just the second time in nine shootouts this
season.



"We blew two leads but at the end of the day I thought we kept a
really positive attitude on the bench," Price said.



Rene Bourque put a shot past Marc-Andre Fleury into the top
right corner on the Canadiens' first attempt.



Evgeni Malkin, who extended his NHL lead to 62 points with an
assist on James Neal's goal in the third, used a spin-around
move to convert the Penguins' second attempt.



"I think I almost got a piece of it," Price said. "But with that
big, long reach and those hands, he's got a lot of cats in the
bag."



Montreal's Lars Eller and Pittsburgh's Chris Kunitz both scored
in the fifth round.



The Penguins fell to 7-3 in shootouts.



"It was good for the crowd but I was disappointed to lose that
one," said Fleury, who turned aside five of eight shootout
attempts after making 28 saves in regulation.



Louis Leblanc scored in the second period to put the Canadiens
up 1-0. Eller restored Montreal's lead at 2-1 with his 11th goal
3 minutes into the third.



Neal scored his 28th goal 7:32 into the third as Pittsburgh
erased a pair of one-goal deficits in the period.



Pascal Dupuis drew Pittsburgh even at 1 early in the third when
he drove the net to score a short-handed goal.



Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma called his timeout with a faceoff in
the Canadiens' zone and 18.3 seconds left in overtime.



Penguins defenseman Kris Letang jumped on Montreal's P.K. Subban
as time expired after Malkin weathered three straight hits from
the Canadiens.



Malkin got a minor for roughing and Canadiens forward Mathieu
Darche was called for interference.



"I was just stepping in for the best player in the world right
now, and the best player in the NHL, so just making sure that we
send a message that they're not going to touch our players,"
said Letang, who was not penalized.



Price made a pad save on Kunitz's quick shot 7 minutes into the
second on a setup off a faceoff won by Malkin in Montreal's
zone.



The Canadiens' goalie lost his bid for a second straight shutout
1:03 into the third when Dupuis was credited with a short-handed
goal that tied it at 1. Joe Vitale's centering pass from the
right side went in off Dupuis' right skate as he drove to the
net. A brief video review upheld the call.



Fleury came up with a few big stops of his own, including
against Leblanc on a partial breakaway 13 minutes in. He also
turned aside Plekanec's shot on a short-handed 3-on-1 early in
the second.



Plekanec was denied by Fleury again when he came out of the
penalty box to take a breakaway pass right after Subban stopped
Malkin's shot at an otherwise open net. Price was caught out of
position when he fell after coming out to play the puck late in
the Penguins' power play.



Luck was against Fleury as the Canadiens regained the lead
shortly after Kunitz's tying goal.



Eller took a shot from the left side just over the blue line
that struck the right post. The puck bounded back off Fleury's
backside and across the goal line to give Montreal its second
lead.



"He had four or five really big saves, really good scoring
chances by their team," Bylsma said of Fleury. "They had some
short-handed opportunities, a breakaway coming out of the box
there after the power play - he made a number of huge saves for
us and really stood strong. It was an unfortunate goal for the
second one, but he played a very good game, making some big
saves, especially in the first half of the game to keep it at
zero."



Leblanc scored his third goal 11:21 into the second. It was his
first in four games since he was recalled from AHL Hamilton.



NOTES: Williams was recalled from AHL Scranton/Wilkes-Barre
earlier in the day. He had one goal and one assist in seven
games with Pittsburgh earlier this season. ... Canadiens LW
Travis Moen returned after missing five games because of an
upper-body injury. ... Montreal D Yannick Weber went to the
dressing room after Kunitz's check sent him into the boards 3:48
into overtime.