Tatar, Niemi help Canadiens defeat Penguins

MONTREAL -- Antti Niemi made 25 saves, and stopped Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in the shootout in a 4-3 win for the Montreal Canadiens against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Bell Centre on Saturday.

"I just stayed with them and got a good gap, and then went from there," said Niemi, who made his first start of the season because Carey Price had the flu.
Paul Byron and Jonathan Drouin scored on Montreal's first two shootout attempts against Casey DeSmith.
WATCH: [All Penguins vs. Canadiens highlights]
"I never faced him, or he never faced me, so I went to my go-to move there," Drouin said.
Tomas Tatar had two goals and an assist for the Canadiens (2-1-1).
DeSmith made 37 saves in his second straight start for the Penguins (2-1-1), who played their first road game.
"I thought he was terrific," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said.
Pittsburgh was penalized for too many men 47 seconds into overtime but Montreal did not get a shot on the ensuing power play.
Canadiens forward Max Domi hit the post with 14 seconds remaining.
"That was wild, a really exciting game, obviously a fun place to play," DeSmith said. "This place is wild so it was an exciting one for the fans and I'm happy we got a point."
Phil Kessel scored his fourth goal in two games to tie it at 3-3 after Pittsburgh blew a 2-0 lead. Kessel, who scored a hat trick in a 4-2 win against the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday, tied the score on the power play at 11:14 of the second period.

Victor Mete appeared to score for Montreal at 7:43 of the third, but Sullivan challenged the play and the goal was disallowed because of goalie interference.
Dominik Simon gave Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead with his first goal at 3:13 of the first period.
Kris Letang, who assisted on Simon's goal, made it 2-0 with his third goal at 15:16.
Tatar scored 11 seconds into the second period -- the first of three straight Montreal goals -- to make it 2-1.

"We know we were not good enough in the first so we talked about what we had to do better and I thought we had a pretty good chance at the start of the second period," Tatar said.
Tatar assisted on Brendan Gallagher's second goal at 7:38 that tied it at 2-2, and Tatar put the Canadiens ahead 3-2 on a power play at 8:51.
"They played with more urgency," Sullivan said. "It started right from the drop of the puck in the second period. They outplayed us in the second period and I think they certainly got a lot of momentum from it. I thought we responded in the third but we've got to play a full 60 [minutes]."

They said it

"I've always been a strong believer in a certain mindset to play this game. And there's a certain level of will that's associated with having success and we've just got to find it more consistently. We have it at times, but we haven't had it in this early part of the season with enough consistency to be the team that we're capable of being." -- Penguins coach Mike Sullivan
"I think the whole team, we pulled together, it wasn't just our line. Everybody played well since the second period, and we had a lot of pressure since the second period started and I think everybody deserves the credit." -- Canadiens forward Tomas Tatar

Need to know

Penguins defenseman Justin Schultz left at 7:42 of the first period after he sustained an apparent left leg injury. "All I know is that he's got a lower-body injury," Sullivan said. "He'll be evaluated when we get back to Pittsburgh. I can't give you any more details than that." … Letang's 99th NHL goal moved him ahead Martin Straka for 10th place in Penguins scoring with 443 points. … Drouin got his 100th NHL assist on Tatar's power-play goal. … Charlie Lindgren was recalled on an emergency basis and backed Niemi up. He was returned to Laval of the American Hockey League after the game.

What's next

Penguins: Host the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; SN1, ATTSN-PT, NHL.TV)
Canadiens: Host the Detroit Red Wings on Monday (7:30 p.m. ET; TSN2, RDS, FS-D, NHL.TV)