Mighty Ducks 5, Canadiens 3

MONTREAL (AP) - The Anaheim Mighty Ducks put the right elements together to earn a rare win in Montreal.

Petr Sykora had a goal and an assist, and Andy McDonald and Teemu Selanne each had two assists, leading Anaheim to its first win in Montreal in seven years, 5-3 over the Canadiens on Saturday night.

Sykora, who missed four games with a groin strain last month and was a healthy scratch Thursday, combined with new linemates McDonald and Selanne 14:29 in for his first goal since Nov. 3 to put the Mighty Ducks ahead to stay.

``When you play this game and you have fun, it's an awesome game,'' Sykora said. ``Things were not really going well lately and I just wanted to go back to the game and get a goal and be happy again.''

Zenon Konopka, Ruslan Salei, Jonathan Hedstrom and Rob Niedermayer also scored and Jean-Sebastien Giguere stopped 21 shots for Anaheim, which had gone 0-3-1 in Montreal since a 5-4 win on March 21, 1998.

``It's a tough place to play,'' Mighty Ducks defenseman Keith Carney said. ``You have to be prepared and you have to get off to a good start, and we were able to do that.''

The Mighty Ducks, who lost 3-2 in overtime Thursday in Buffalo, ended a two-game losing streak and won for the fifth time in seven games (5-1-1).

``You can't look in the past but I think we did some good things out there,'' said Selanne, who scored twice - including the deciding goal - in Anaheim's last win in Montreal during his first stint with the Mighty Ducks. ``We tried to learn something from Buffalo. We were leading with four minutes to go in the third period and we ended up losing in overtime. We wanted to make sure it didn't happen again because there weren't too many happy campers.''

Rookie Alexander Perezhogin scored Montreal's second goal after assisting on Richard Zednik's disputed tally in the first. Michael Ryder completed the scoring with his team-leading 12th goal in the third.

The Canadiens, who hadn't played since a 3-2 win over Los Angeles a week earlier, lost for the ninth time in 12 games (3-5-4) after winning 12 of their first 16.

``Even though the Canadiens didn't play their best game, I don't think we gave them a chance to play their best game,'' said Giguere, who made his second straight start since returning from a strained hamstring.

With Alex Kovalev and Saku Koivu sidelined by injuries, Montreal's lineup was bolstered by the return of defensemen Andrei Markov and Mike Komisarek. Both missed three games.

While Markov was serving a suspension for shoving a linesman, Komisarek was home with his family following his mother's death. He was on the ice for each of Anaheim's first four goals, including three on six shifts in the first period.

Konopka, Sykora and Salei scored first-period goals as Anaheim had a 20-10 margin in shots while building a 3-1 lead.

``We knew that we had to be ready for the start of the game,'' Canadiens defenseman Craig Rivet said. ``Tonight's first period was going to be key for us and obviously - you guys watched the game - it was pretty disgraceful out there, right from start to finish.''

Outshot 12-1 at one point after Konopka opened the scoring, Montreal needed a two-man advantage to muster its second shot on net.

The Canadiens made it count - though only after a lengthy video review - as Zednik was credited with Montreal's first 5-on-3 goal of the season.

Despite Anaheim center Samuel Pahlsson's best effort to take him down, Zednik appeared to have tied it at 11:41 when the puck ended up in the net after a rebound struck him in the crease.

Referee Paul Devorski initially waved off the goal but that decision was reversed as replays showed that Zednik's stick made contact with the puck just as it was crossing the goal line.

McDonald and Selanne helped the Mighty Ducks regain the lead and then built on it as they combined to set up goals by Sykora and Salei later in the period.

After Hedstrom got his seventh goal 7:32 into the second to put Anaheim up 4-1, Perezhogin drew Montreal within two at 8:56.

Niedermayer made it 5-2 when he scored his seventh on a power play at 13:41.

The Canadiens cut the lead to two on Ryder's power-play goal 13:22 into the third.

Notes: Zednik's goal was the second Anaheim allowed during a 5-on-3 situation. ... Koivu missed his third game because of a groin injury. He skated with the team earlier in the day and hopes to return Tuesday against Phoenix. ... Montreal has sold out each of its 16 home games this season.