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Wednesday, Dec. 15 10:00pm ET
Nielsen's first 2-goal game lifts Ducks

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DENVER (AP) -- Jeff Nielsen outshined Anaheim's more prolific scorers -- Teemu Selanne and Paul Kariya.

Nielsen had his first career two-goal game and the Mighty Ducks won their fourth consecutive road game, 4-2 over the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday night.

"He is not known for his goal scoring, but he had a big goal against Colorado last year in their building and we won 1-0," Anaheim coach Craig Hartsburg said. "He is a guy that gives us energy and plays hard every night."

Selanne and Ted Donato also scored, and Dominic Roussel stopped 19 shots. Roussel, who blanked the Avalanche 1-0 on Dec. 22 last year, won his second straight start.

The fourth consecutive road wins matched a franchise record done twice previously, the last time coming Jan. 9-Feb. 15, 1999.

Chris Drury had a goal and an assist, and Sandis Ozolinsh a goal for the Avalanche. Colorado played without Adam Deadmarsh (bruised toe) and Joe Sakic (rib injury).

"Anaheim did a good job of killing penalties, but we forced things tonight," Colorado coach Bob Hartley said. "We didn't have a lot of jump and didn't generate much."

Anaheim took advantage of an Avalanche mistake to take a 1-0 lead at 12:29 of the first period. Colorado defenseman Greg de Vries turned the puck over right onto the stick of Nielsen deep inside the Avalanche zone and Nielsen fired a slap shot past Patrick Roy for his third goal.

Drury tied the game with a power-play goal at 1:21 of the second period, but just more than a minute later the Mighty Ducks turned another turnover by de Vries into Nielsen's second goal of the game. Roy had no chance after Tony Hrkac stole the puck from de Vries in the right circle and fed Nielsen in the slot.

"I picked up a couple and I didn't have to get my stick checked," said Nielsen in reference to minor penalties issued to Selanne and Roussel for using illegal sticks. "My teammates made plays to get me the puck."

Hartsburg wasn't as amused with the stick penalties, that set up Ozolinsh's third-period goal that made it 3-2.

"We are going to ask the league to investigate this building because their dressing room goes right into our room," Hartsburg said. "If we cheated with illegal sticks, I've gotta question, somebody cheated and came in and checked our sticks."

Selanne gave Anaheim a two-goal lead at 14:30 of the period.

"We tied the game in the second period and gave up a goal right away," Colorado center Peter Forsberg said. "We should have played better."

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