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 The Ducks beat the Canadiens 3-1 at Honda Center on Wednesday,
putting Anaheim in sole possession of the No. 1 spot in the West.
Montreal dropped to 0-2 on its West Coast road trip, leaving four
teams within four points of the Canadiens in the East standings. The
Canadiens came dangerously close to failing to score in either game,
negating some of the progress from their preceding four-game win
streak.
"I don't know about losing momentum," Montreal defenseman P.K.
Subban said. "At the end of the day, you can just focus on the
process, you can't focus on anything else. You focus on the process,
and hopefully the outcome is in your favor."
Defenseman Francois Beauchemin, center Rickard Rakell and defenseman
Cam Fowler scored for Anaheim. Center Alex Galchenyuk netted
Montreal's lone goal.
Ducks rookie John Gibson turned away 37 shots, while the Canadiens'
Carey Price came up with 30 saves.
Gibson won for the sixth time in his past seven decisions, creating
an enviable dilemma for Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau, who also saw
No. 1 goalie Frederik Andersen return from injury and earn a win at
Arizona on Tuesday.
 "It almost looked like Freddie played real well last night, and John
said, 'Oh, yeah? I'll show you!' and he comes in and plays great.
It's a great problem for the coach to have," Boudreau said.
The Ducks struck first at 6:31 of the opening period when Beauchemin
joined the rush and sent a searing wrist shot past Price to the far
side. Beauchemin has four of his eight goals this season since Feb.
20, a time period in which the Ducks have been without top-scoring
rearguard Sami Vatanen.
Beauchemin, a defensive defenseman, had three goals in his first 37
games before adding five in his past 11.
"It's just one of those things," he said. "Breakaways, shooting off
the rush. They're going in, so I just have to keep shooting and
going after it."
Beauchemin had two strong opportunities in the second period,
including a breakaway, but both went for naught.
The Canadiens had a similar experience collectively, failing to
capitalize on a pair of power-play opportunities in the middle
period.
Anaheim took a 2-0 lead midway through the game. A long shot from
defenseman Hampus Lindholm handcuffed Price as two Ducks crashed the
net. Left winger Jiri Sekac got his stick on the puck before Rakell
swept the rebound into the net for his sixth goal of 2014-15.
Sekac was traded from Montreal to Anaheim last week. He posted just
two points in his final 21 games as a Canadien, but he already has
three in five contests with the Ducks.
"I'm not going to lie, It's a pretty good feeling, and I'm very
happy we beat the Habs," Sekac said. "Nothing gets better than
beating the team you used to play for."
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The Ducks got their first power play 17:36 into the second period
and promptly gave up two short-handed rushes. On the second one,
left winger Max Pacioretty had a breakaway thwarted by Gibson's
blocker.
"Obviously, there's gonna be some regret with a couple of those
chances, especially for guys like me, but we've got to stay
positive," Pacioretty said.
With 2:08 remaining in the game, Ducks defenseman Clayton Stoner
shot the puck over the glass. Montreal had life with the resulting
power play and pulled Price to gain a six-on-four advantage. The
Ducks promptly won the defensive-zone faceoff, and Fowler fired the
puck down ice into the empty net.
Montreal broke up the shutout with 1:41 left when Galchenyuk
redirected a sharp-angle shot into the net for his 19th goal of the
campaign.
"The difference tonight was their goalie," Canadiens coach Michel
Therrien said. "He was phenomenal for them. They deserved to win
because of the way he played. We got some A-plus chances tonight."
NOTES: Ducks RW Tim Jackman (lower body) will miss four to six weeks
as a result of an injury sustained Sunday at Dallas. ... Anaheim was
also without LW Matt Beleskey (shoulder), D Sami Vatanen (lower
body) and recent acquisition D James Wisniewski (foot). ... D Simon
Despres and LW Tomas Fleischmann, whom the Ducks recently acquired
in trades, made their home debuts. ... Montreal D Alexei Emelin
(shoulder) has been out of action since he collided with the boards
on Feb. 18. ... Wednesday marked the first time that Montreal RW
Devante Smith-Pelly and Anaheim LW Jiri Sekac competed against their
former teams since being traded for each other last week. ... The
Canadiens were also active at the deadline. Two of their
acquisitions, C Brian Flynn and RW Torrey Mitchell, made their
Montreal debuts Wednesday, dressing in place of C Manny Malhotra and
RW P.A. Parenteau. D Jeff Petry made his debut in a 4-0 loss to San
Jose on Monday.
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