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ANAHEIM, Calif. -- For much of the first period, the Anaheim Ducks looked overmatched against the top team in the NHL.The Montreal Canadiens were controlling the puck and outshooting Anaheim 15-3 at one point. What they were not getting, however, were any goals.Buoyed by the play of John Gibson in net, the Ducks recovered behind goals from Rickard Rakell and defenseman Cam Fowler to beat the Canadiens 2-1 on Tuesday night.We have to eliminate these starts that are pretty much pedestrian, Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle said. It was kind of like they had the puck and wouldnt give it to us.But our goalie kept us in there and we got a 1-0 lead and then we were much better the rest of the game.The 23-year-old Gibson, in his first full NHL season, equaled a career high with 39 saves and outplayed counterpart Carey Price, the 2015 league MVP.Price made several excellent stops, but Gibson turned away Montreals first 38 shots. Andrew Shaw scored with 2 minutes left and Price finished with 36 saves for the Canadiens (16-5-2).It was a good test, Gibson said. Theyre the best team in the league and everyone wants to see how they stack up against the best. We played well.Anaheim (11-8-4) had lost three consecutive games before winning Friday at San Jose, the defending Western Conference champion.Price was among the league leaders in goals allowed per game (1.66) and led with 13 wins.Price came up big for us and kept us in the game, Montreal defenseman Jeff Petry said. We were using our speed at first and then got away from that. Its something we have to learn from, because if we use our speed were a tough team to handle.With Gibson stopping 17 shots, the Ducks were able to overcome their slow start when they scored on a power play with just more than 3 minutes to play in the opening period.Rakell tried a wraparound from behind the net, but Price deflected the puck to Anaheims Ryan Kesler. He attempted to slap it in, but it caromed off Price and right back to Rakell, who snapped it in.It was the ninth goal in 14 games for Rakell, a late signee.The Ducks began to play more aggressively after taking the lead. They went up 2-0 in the second period when Fowler beat Price to the short side.It was a weird angle, Fowler said. My body was facing the boards, so its not an ideal angle to get everything you want on the shot. But Im not complaining.The Ducks held their 2-0 lead until the final minutes, when the Canadiens pulled Price for an extra skater and Shaw ruined the shutout bid.Both goalies played really well, Montreal coach Michel Therrien said. I liked the way we got out of the gate. I thought we were ready to play. They put pressure on us and we didnt react the right way.SHAW SNAPSAfter the Canadiens pulled within a goal, Shaw was sent off for hooking with 28 seconds left and flipped out in the penalty box. He directed a profane tirade toward at least one official, slammed his stick on the glass and snapped it over his knee. Shaw was given a 10-minute misconduct and ejected.Game notesThe Ducks went 8-4-2 in November and are 9-0 this season when leading after two periods. ... The Canadiens are 1-7-2 in their last 10 games against the Ducks and 11-14-4 in the all-time series. ... Rakells nine goals in November tie him for third in the NHL. . Gibson matched his career high with 39 saves.UP NEXTCanadiens: Continue a three-game California swing Friday in San Jose.Ducks: Begin a three-game road trip Thursday in Vancouver.---This story has been corrected with the proper spelling of Rakells first name.Nike Baseball Jerseys 2020 . -- Jaye Marie Green shot a 4-under 68 on Thursday to increase her lead to five strokes after the second round of the LPGA Tours qualifying tournament. Nike Baseball Jerseys China . The No. 1-ranked Nadal tweaked his back warming up for the Australian Open final, which he lost almost four weeks ago in a major upset against Stanislas Wawrinka. His first stop after the layoff is the clay in Rio as he tests the back and tries to stay healthy for the French Open in three months. https://www.fakebaseballjerseys.com/ . -- Anaheim Ducks captain and leading scorer Ryan Getzlaf has been scratched from Sunday nights game against the Vancouver Canucks because of an upper-body injury. Cheap Baseball Jerseys Authentic . -- Peyton Manning will have all of his wide receivers available for the first time in a month when the Denver Broncos begin their playoff run Jan. Cheap Nike Baseball Jerseys .Y. -- Paul Byron and Matt Stajan scored as the Calgary Flames started a five-game road trip with a 2-1 overtime win over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday afternoon.DraftKings and FanDuel, the two largest daily fantasy sports operators, have agreed to merge, the companies announced Friday.The merger, pending regulatory approval, is expected to close in the second half of 2017. Until then, both sites will continue to operate under their respective brand names.Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but sources close to the negotiations told ESPN that it is basically a 50/50 split between the fantasy giants. Each company will have three seats on the board, with one independent director. At closing, DraftKings CEO Jason Robins will be the CEO of the new company, while FanDuel CEO Nigel Eccles will become the chairman of the board.The name of the joint company has not been revealed. It will have headquarters in New York and Boston.We have always been passionate about providing the best possible experience for our customers and this merger will help advance our goal of building a transformational global sports entertainment platform, Robins said in the release announcing the agreement. Joining forces will allow us to truly realize the potential of our vision, and as a combined company we will be able to accelerate the pace of innovation and bring a richer experience to our customers than we ever could have done separately.Being able to combine DraftKings and FanDuel, added Eccles, presents a tremendous opportunity for us to further innovate and disrupt the sports industry. While both companies have accomplished much already, this transaction will create a business that can offer a greater variety of offerings, appealing to new users, including the tens of millions of season-long fantasy players that havent yet tried our products.The merger is expected to draw scrutiny, potentially from the Federal Trade Commission. FanDuel and DraftKings make up more than 80 percent of the daily fantasy marketplace, but they are looking to pool their resources to grow their customer base by tapping into the much larger season-long market, a source privy to the companies strategy told ESPN. An estimated 40 million North Americans play only season-long fantasy sports, eight times more than the number of those who play daily fantasy.The benefit of the merger to the consumer, an important test for regulators, will be increased overall competition in the marketplace, the source said. The source added that DraftKings and FanDuel will work together in a streamlined fashion to conquer regulatory hurdles, which have hampered both businesses. They believe it could further open the fantasy market to entrepreneurship.Some smaller fantasy operators also view the merger as an opportunity.Prior to the tumult of the past year, FanDuel and DraftKings were well on their way to becoming multibillion-dollar pillar business[es] in sports, said Jeremy Levine, founder and CEO of DRAFT, a competing fantasy site. There still will be massive business built in this space, but it wont be FanDuel or DraftKings individually. Due to the merger, the opportunity is now there for the few companies that were able to survive and strengthen in the past year.In the meantime, with legal fees and regulatory costs mounting, the merger between DraftKings and FanDuel was seen as a necessity by some investors. Multiple high-volume players told ESPN they stopped playing because of the increasing rake, the commission fee charged by the sites. Overall play on both sites was described as soft by players.DraftKings and FanDuel each have approximately 320 employees.FanDuel was launched in July 2009 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and rose to the top of the industry with an innovative, condensed version of traditional season-long fantasy sports. DraftKings came along three years later and quickly took aim at FFanDuel, creating, at times, a hostile rivalry between the two leading operators and their CEOs.ddddddddddddBoth companies attracted large investments from media conglomerates and venture capitalists. They formed partnerships with professional sports leagues. The NBA has equity in FanDuel; Major League Baseball and the NHL are partners with DraftKings, along with 28 of the 32 NFL franchises.At their peak, the companies were each valued at more than $1 billion. But things changed in the fall of 2015.Heading into last football season, the sites unleashed massive marketing blitzes, flooding the airwaves with commercials touting million-dollar prizes. The two companies spent an estimated $750 million combined on ads, marketing and related expenses in 2015.The relentless advertising attracted a bevy of new users but also the attention of lawmakers and regulators.The scrutiny intensified after a DraftKings employee won $350,000 playing in an NFL contest on FanDuel. There were accusations the employee used inside information. An investigation by DraftKings found the employee did not use internal information that potentially could have given him an unfair advantage in submitting his winning lineup, but the damage had been done, and a firestorm of controversy ensued.In November 2015, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sent cease-and-desist letters to DraftKings and FanDuel, eventually forcing the companies out of one of their most important states for several months. Alabama, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Mississippi and Texas joined New York in ruling daily fantasy violated state gambling laws.FanDuel stopped operating paid contests in Texas, but DraftKings filed suit against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and continues to offer games in the state. Paxtons office said it would assess the impact of the merger on the pending litigation.Both sites are still involved in litigation against Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and also are contending with a consolidated class-action suit. They recently settled with Schneiderman over false advertising claims, agreeing to each pay $6 million. The settlement with Schneiderman, sources said, was one of the last hurdles before the merger could be completed.Nine states have passed legislation clarifying the legality of fantasy sports in the past two years. With the new laws came increased regulatory costs in the form of licensing fees and taxes. Theyve taken a toll on the companies finances and, along with legal costs, ultimately forced the merger, sources said.The New York Times reported both sites were having trouble meeting their day-to-day financial obligations, and multiple sources told ESPN that DraftKings and FanDuel were months behind on paying vendors and lobbyists. The merger, upon approval, would allow the companies to split legal fees and regulatory costs. Without it, some questioned whether they would survive.Up until recently, it seemed unlikely Eccles and Robins would be able to work together. They were known rivals and had different views on which direction to take the industry. DraftKings, for example, offers contests on golf and NASCAR, while FanDuel avoided those sports over legal concerns.They were the Jets and the Sharks, said Al Zeidenfeld, a high-level daily fantasy player and contributor to ESPN. You think the Jets and the Sharks would form one super neighborhood gang? No.Both platforms will remain separate and operational through the 2017 NFL season, while the deal is completed, the sites said.ESPN senior writers Don Van Natta and Darren Rovell contributed to this story. ' ' '