Flyers blow 3-goal third-period lead, lose to Habs in SO

Philadelphia, PA -- It appears a pattern is emerging, so soon into Craig Berube's first full season as an NHL head coach.

The players he's been given can move the puck well and strike at will in short bursts, but collectively play defense poorly at such an alarming rate and at inopportune times.

On Saturday night, P.A. Parenteau notched the lone goal of the  shootout, enabling  the Montreal  Canadiens  to rally  from a  three-goal deficit  and  record a  4-3 victory  over the  Philadelphia Flyers.

After  Matt Read  shot his wrister high  and over the net, Parenteau ended the fourth  round  and the  contest by  beating Ray Emery  with a quick forehander inside the right post.

"It's the best feeling, when you go up there. The nerves are going but you just have to bear down, stay focused and that's what I did," Parenteau said of his game-deciding shot.

Andrei Markov, Tomas Plekanec and Alex Galchenyuk tallied in a third-period clip for the Canadiens, who have won back-to-back shootouts and improved to 3-0-0 on the year. Carey Price made 29 saves.

"If you look at the result in the first period, the result was not on our side, but I thought we played with energy. We made some mistakes, youth mistakes," noted Habs head coach Michel Therrien. "But we showed a lot of character. This is a group of guysthat have character and they never give up. 
They certainly deserved to win the way they played in the third period."

Wayne Simmonds collected his second straight multi-goal effort for the Flyers, who avoided their third consecutive 0-3 start with a point beyond regulation.

Michael Raffl added a first-period marker, while Emery finished with 35 saves in his first action of the season.

"It sucks. We were up three-nothing. Obviously you don't get the two points, you're disappointed," Simmonds admitted. "Ray played really well for us tonight. We were supporting him offensively for the two first periods and then fell apart."

The hosts broke through with a pair of goals 18 seconds apart early in the first. Raffl went to the net and backhanded a shot through Price's pads at 3:39, then Simmonds ripped a wrister off the rush from the left circle at 3:57.

Simmonds picked up the rebound of a Vincent Lecavalier shot and scored from the left side on a power play for a 3-0 Flyers edge only 55 seconds into the middle period.

Montreal finally found its legs in the third period, claiming a 19-4 shot advantage. The visitors' comeback began when a point shot from Markov zipped by a screened Emery for a two-goal contest at the 7:05 mark.

During an extended sequence inside the Philadelphia zone thanks to the host defense unable to clear the puck, Plekanec then swept home a rebound from a sharp angle at the right post and the Habs crept within 3-2 at 9:12.

Galchenyuk then tied the game on a one-timer from the right circle with 5:20 to play.

"When they got the first goal we stopped playing. We started watching," said Flyers head coach Craig Berube. "I thought (the momentum) shifted after the first goal. It's a mental thing. I think that we went through it last year at times, at the start of the season, the same kind of thing -- where we had leads, (it) might have been four or five of them the start of last season, at the start of the third period and lost them."

Emery robbed Galchenyuk's bid to end the game, foiling his breakaway backhander with a slick glove stop 90 seconds into the extra session. Philly couldn't put the game to rest despite a power play resulting from a Lars Eller tripping infraction midway through overtime.

Notes: The Canadiens claimed their first-ever shootout win in Philadelphia, having lost the only other contest to be decided by breakaways, 5-4, on March 6, 2006 ... Markov added a pair of assists ... Philadelphia had won its last 10 home games, including playoffs, against Montreal, since the Habs' 1-0 decision on Apr. 2, 2010 (seven regular-season meetings and three in the 2010 Eastern Conference finals) ... The Flyers had also put together a string of 10 consecutive home games against Habs without a loss from Feb. 11, 1993 through Jan. 14, 1998 (eight wins, two ties).
10/12 00:01:21 ET