Alex Galchenyuk scored two goals, while Mike Condon made 33 saves as 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.
Photo: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY
Trailing 4-1, the Capitals scored twice inside the final minutes, including Andre Burakovsky’s goal with 2 minutes, 53 seconds 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.
BRUINS 5, PENGUINS 1M
In Boston, David Pastrnak had two goals, including one on a penalty shot, as Boston blew past Pittsburgh.
Boston outscored Pittsburgh 14-3 while sweeping the three-game season series.
Tuukka Rask made 41 saves for the Bruins. Jimmy Hayes, Landon Ferraro and Brad Marchand also scored.
Tom Kuhnhackl scored to bring Pittsburgh within 2-1 late in the second period. The puck went in off Kuhnhackl’s skate, and the goal survived a video review.
Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 24 shots, and Pittsburgh had their first regulation loss in their past five road games. The Penguins entered one point ahead of New Jersey for eighth place in the Eastern Conference.
DUCKS 1, SABRES 0
In Anaheim, California, Frederik Andersen made 26 saves in his fourth career shutout, while Sami Vatanen scored on a power play in the second period as Anaheim beat Buffalo for their season-best sixth straight victory.
The resurgent Ducks climbed within two points of the Pacific Division-leading Los Angeles Kings. Anaheim are 20-4-2 since losing back-to-back games road games against the Islanders and Rangers on Dec. 21 and Dec. 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, SO
In Denver, Colorado, Nathan MacKinnon and Matt Duchene scored in the shootout, while Shawn Matthias had a goal in his Colorado debut as 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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Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
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