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WASHNGTON (AP) — Alex Galchenyuk scored two goals, Mike Condon made 33 saves and the Montreal Canadiens topped the Eastern Conference-leading Washington Capitals 4-3 on Wednesday night.

The Canadiens built a 3-0 lead and chased Capitals goalie Braden Holtby in the second period before holding on as Washington tallied two late goals.

Brendan Gallagher and Tomas Fleischmann added goals for the Canadiens, who had lost four of five, and two previous meetings with Washington this season.

Trailing 4-1, the Capitals scored twice inside the final minutes, including Andre Burakovsky’s goal with 2:53 remaining. Jason Chimera and Dmitri Orlov also scored for the President’s Trophy front-runners, who entered 17-1-1 over their previous 19 home games.

Alex Ovechkin, the NHL leader with 39 goals, had one assist, but did not score for the first time in four games for Washington.

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Ducks 1, Sabres 0

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Frederik Andersen made 26 saves in his fourth career shutout, Sami Vatanen scored on a power play in the second period and Anaheim beat Buffalo for its season best sixth straight victory.

The resurgent Ducks climbed within two points of the Pacific Division-leading Los Angeles Kings. Anaheim is 20-4-2 since losing back-to-back games road games against the Islanders and Rangers on Dec. 21-22.

Robin Lehner made 28 saves for the Sabres, who were shut out for the fifth time. Andersen is 4-0-0 with a 1.00 goals-against average in four career starts against Buffalo. This was his first shutout of the season.

The Ducks had scored at least five goals in a franchise record four consecutive games coming into this one but failed to get a shot on net during the final 10:38 of a scoreless first period.

Avalanche 4, Sharks 3

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DENVER (AP) — Nathan MacKinnon and Matt Duchene scored in the shootout, Shawn Matthias had a goal in his Colorado debut and the Avalanche beat San Jose.

Calvin Pickard came up big in the shootout by stopping two shots. He made 30 saves filling in for starter Semyon Varlamov, who was out with the flu.

Gabriel Landeskog and Jarome Iginla had goals in regulation for Colorado. It was Iginla’s 607th career NHL goal.

Matthias scored on his first shot in an Avalanche jersey. The same went for Nick Spaling in a Sharks sweater. Both were acquired in separate deals with Toronto earlier in the week.

Brent Burns and Joel Ward also scored for the Sharks, with Ward’s goal tying it with 1:31 remaining. Martin Jones made 38 saves, and the Sharks finished their trip with a 3-1-1 mark.



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