PITTSBURGH -- The Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the team they never beat on a night when it seemed they probably shouldn't beat anyone.

Center Peter Holland and right winger Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau scored on Toronto's only shootout attempts and the Maple Leafs shook off a bad loss the night before to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2 on Wednesday night.

The Maple Leafs had dropped seven in a row to the Penguins -- four in Pittsburgh -- only to win behind goalie Jonathan Bernier, who was pulled after allowing six goals on only 15 shots in a 6-3 loss to the New York Islanders on Tuesday night.

Bernier probably wouldn't have started in Pittsburgh, but backup James Reimer -- who hasn't started since Dec. 3 because of a groin injury -- was unable to go after replacing Bernier on Tuesday.

"I wanted to have a bounce-back game and that's what we wanted as a group," said Bernier, who stopped 39 of 41 shots. "We found a way to win. We found a way to win -- and that's the bottom line."

Winger David Perron scored for Pittsburgh in the shootout, but Bernier turned aside center Sidney Crosby -- who had a goal and an assist in regulation-- and defenseman Kris Letang.

"We had our chances," Crosby said, referring in part to the Penguins scoring on only one of 20 shots in the second period. "We've definitely got to find a way to get a goal there (when it was 2-2)."

The perennially strong Penguins continued to struggle, losing their second straight overall and their sixth in their last seven at home. They are 2-6 under new coach Mike Sullivan.

"We're trying to scratch and claw our way back into this (the playoff race)," said Sullivan, whose team wouldn't qualify for the postseason if it started today. "I thought we did a lot of positive things, we played with energy and generated a lot of scoring chances, but there were times in the game when we didn't play smart and gave up some quality chances."

A game that began with plenty of up-and-down skating, odd-man rushes and scoring chances, turned into a goaltenders' duel between Bernier and Pittsburgh rookie Matthew Murray (34 saves), who was playing in only his fourth NHL game this season.

"I thought I made some saves that kept the momentum for us, but I've got to come up with the save there in the shootout," said Murray, who was unknown to most of the Leafs players.

The Maple Leafs jumped into a 1-0 lead on defenseman Dion Phaneuf's slap shot from just inside the blue line 3:51 into the game. Right winger Michael Grabner effectively screened Murray even as Pittsburgh defenseman Ben Lovejoy tried pushing him out of the way.

The Penguins' 28th-ranked power-play unit tied it less than two minutes later on left winger Chris Kunitz's fifth goal. With center Peter Holland off for hooking, Crosby steered a pass between defenseman Morgan Rielly's legs directly onto Kunitz's uplifted stick near the left goal post.

The Maple Leafs answered 1:13 into the second period as defenseman Jake Gardiner tipped left winger James van Riemsdyk's shot from the right circle. The puck flew directly past Murray's upstretched glove and into the net for Gardiner's third.

"Mine was pretty lucky, off my hand ... I was trying to protect my face," Gardiner said.

Then Crosby, who has begun picking up his offensive game after a season-long slump, scored his second in three games -- after going seven games without a goal. His inside-outside move froze Bernier at 4:45 of the second. Crosby, a former NHL scoring champion, still has only eight goals in 35 games.

Murray made a potential game-saving save on right winger Daniel Winnik late in the third.

In the second, Bernier stopped right winger Phil Kessel on a breakaway that would have given Pittsburgh a 3-2 lead in a game in which the teams alternated scoring the first four goals.

"I think he was getting a little upset at the end," Bernier said of Kessel, the former Maple Leafs star.

NOTES: Penguins G Marc-Andre Fleury (concussion), who last played Dec. 14, practiced Tuesday for the first time since getting hurt but was not in uniform. ... Penguins D Kris Letang returned after missing nine of the previous 11 games -- including a Sunday 1-0 loss in Winnipeg -- with multiple injuries, including a concussion. He was driven hard into the boards in the first period by C Leo Komarov, who was called for boarding. Penguins coach Mike Sullivan thought it should have been a major penalty. ... The Maple Leafs were expected to start G James Reimer (groin) for the first time since Dec. 3; he finished up a 6-3 loss Tuesday to the New York Islanders on Tuesday but apparently was reinjured. G Jonathan Bernier was back in net. ... Toronto scratched D Frank Corrado, RW Mark Arcobello and Reimer. The Penguins sat down LW Sergei Plotnikov, D Adam Clendening and D David Warsofsky.