Lehkonen scores 2 goals and MacKinnon reaches 700 assists as Avalanche sink Sharks, 4-2

DENVER (AP) — Josh Manson scored the tiebreaking goal in the third period and the NHL-leading Colorado Avalanche beat the San Jose Sharks 4-2 in their final game before the Olympic break Wednesday night.

Artturi Lehkonen scored twice and Nathan MacKinnon had two assists for Colorado to reach another career milestone.

MacKinnon joined Joe Sakic as the only players in franchise history with 700 assists. Sakic, the team president, finished his career with 1,016.

Brock Nelson scored an empty-net goal, Valeri Nichushkin had three assists and Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 23 shots for the Avalanche.

Timothy Liljegren and Philippe Kurashev scored 2:51 apart early in the third to tie it for the Sharks. Yaroslav Askarov made 38 saves, but San Jose enters the three-week break on a four-game skid.

Manson broke the tie when his one-timer from the point got by a screened Askarov at 12:44. Askarov later went off for an extra skater, and Nelson scored his 29th goal at 18:43.

Colorado has stumbled since starting the season with just two regulation losses through the first 39 games. The Avs had gone 5-7-2 since Jan. 4 before beating San Jose and had their 11-point lead over Minnesota in the Central Division reduced to five.

Colorado, which has played three fewer games than the Wild, has 83 points heading into the Olympic break.

Lehkonen, who will play for Finland in Italy, gave the Avs a 1-0 lead early in the second after a battle in San Jose’s crease. The goal was upheld upon review, but his second and 19th of the season was a clean wrister from the right circle on MacKinnon's 700th assist.

Liljegren scored his first goal of the season 43 seconds into the third period and Kurashev tied it at 3:34 when he scored his seventh.

Sharks: Host the Calgary Flames on Feb. 26.

Avalanche: Host the Minnesota Wild on Feb. 26.

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

San Jose Sharks center Zack Ostapchuk, left, checks Colorado Avalanche right wing Valeri Nichushkin in the first period of an NHL hockey game, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

San Jose Sharks defenseman Dmitry Orlov, front, pursues the puck with Colorado Avalanche center Brock Nelson in the first period of an NHL hockey game, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Colorado Avalanche center Ross Colton, fornt, collects a loose puck as left wing Victor Olofsson trails in the first period of an NHL hockey game against the San Jose Sharks, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

San Jose Sharks left wing William Eklund, left, puts a shot on Colorado Avalanche goaltender MacKenzie Blackwood in the second period of an NHL hockey game Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Colorado Avalanche left wing Artturi Lehkonen, right, is congratulated after scoring a goal as he passes the team box in the second period of an NHL hockey game against the San Jose Sharks Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Las Vegas Review-Journal announced Friday that it will no longer print its rival the Las Vegas Sun for the first time in decades, amid an ongoing legal dispute over the nation's last joint operating agreement stemming from a 1970 law designed to preserve newspapers.

Readers “will not find a printed Las Vegas Sun insert inside,” the Review-Journal said in an editorial, noting the Sun maintains a website, has a few hundred thousand followers across social media platforms, and is free to produce its own newspaper.

“We encourage them to do so. The Review-Journal competes with countless sources of news and entertainment, but we would welcome one more. We just don’t want to foot the bill. It is time the Sun stood up on its own two feet,” the editorial said, without specifying the cost.

The two publications will be in court Friday and the Sun hopes a judge will order printing to immediately resume, attorney Leif Reid said in an email. It will be the first day in 76 years that the Sun hasn’t been printed, he said.

“This does irreparable harm to our community, as no one benefits when a local newspaper is prevented from being published,” he said.

The now-rare joint operating agreement required the Sun to be printed as a daily insert in the Review-Journal, while both companies remained editorially independent with separate newsrooms and websites.

A lower court had found the agreement was unenforceable because a 2005 update was never signed by the U.S. attorney general, and in February the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal by the Sun.

The Review-Journal editorial called the Supreme Court decision a decisive victory, saying that halting publication of the Sun on Friday was “a result of 6½ years of litigation between the newspapers, precipitated by the Sun.”

Such agreements between rival publications have dwindled as part of a "long, slow goodbye of newspapers as we knew them,” said Ken Doctor, a news business analyst. The Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News ended a 40-year agreement last year. USA Today Co., which owns the Detroit Free Press, recently announced its plans to purchase the Detroit News.

In 1950, the Sun was founded in response to the Review-Journal’s refusal to negotiate with typesetters from the International Typographical Union. The union started its own newspaper and reached out to businessman Hank Greenspun for financial backing. The Greenspuns still own the paper.

The Review-Journal has been publishing since 1909, first as the Clark County Review. It is owned by the Adelson family, casino magnates and mega GOP donors, and remains the state’s largest newspaper.

The Review-Journal’s editorials lean more conservative, while the Sun’s lean liberal. The 1970 law signed by then President Richard Nixon, called the Newspaper Preservation Act, was designed to save newspapers costs while maintaining competition and editorial variety in cities as newspapers began to financially struggle.

The papers first entered into a joint operating agreement in 1989 when the Sun was struggling to stay afloat financially. The agreement made the Sun an afternoon newspaper during weekdays and a section within the Review-Journal on weekend mornings, while the Review-Journal handled production, distribution and advertising. The Review-Journal also collected all revenue and was required to pay the Sun monthly to cover the Sun’s news and editorial expenses.

In 2005 the agreement was amended to make the Sun an insert in the Review-Journal every morning.

Review-Journal owners sought to end the agreement in 2019, and in response the Sun’s owners filed a lawsuit alleging that ending the agreement violated anti-trust laws.

The 1970 law allowing such agreements was signed at a time when news options weren't as prevalent and there was more concern over news monopolies.

Las Vegas — and Nevada as a whole — today have more strong, independent news organizations compared to other places, said Stephen Bates, a journalism and media professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

The Sun also publishes online. But it has argued in court that losing its print product could make it harder to recruit staff, cause a loss in readers, and even force it to close.

Genelle Belmas, a journalism professor at the University of Kansas who specializes in media law, said it would be disappointing if the last joint operating agreement in the country ends. During visits to Vegas, she's enjoyed being able to pick up the Review-Journal and see the Sun folded inside, offering two differing points of view in one place. Online news outlets make it easier for consumers to stay in their echo chambers, she said.

“Every local news outlet we lose — and that includes big towns, small towns, whatever — is a loss of perspective and a loss of a potential alternative view,” Belmas said.

FILE - This Dec. 17, 2015 file photo shows a sign outside the building housing the Las Vegas Review-Journal in Las Vegas. AP Photo/John Locher, File)