San Jose Ends Skid With Ducks
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) Brad Winchester and Benn Ferrieroscored 27 seconds apart in the second period, and the San Jose Sharks beat the Anaheim Ducks for the first time in four tries this season, 3-1 Wednesday night.
Joe Pavelski also scored and Antti Niemi made 26 saves in his 13th consecutive start for the Sharks, who were inexplicably mastered in their first three meetings with the woebegone Ducks, who sit 29th in the NHL standings.
San Jose couldn't score for the first 36 minutes, but Winchester's shot off the post and Ferriero's hustle play in front of Jonas Hiller's net erased an early deficit and sent the Ducks spiraling to their seventh loss in eight games.
Corey Perry scored for the Ducks, who have lost 11 of 14 since replacing coach Randy Carlyle with Bruce Boudreau.
Hiller stopped 33 shots for Anaheim, which didn't get a noticeable boost from left wing Jason Blake's return from a 34-game injury absence.
Anaheim captain Ryan Getzlaf's scoreless slump reached a career-worst six games in the Ducks' third straight loss to start a six-game homestand.
Getzlaf, the Canadian Olympian and former 90-point NHL scorer, hasn't scored a goal in 12 games, with just two since Oct. 29. The seven-year NHL veteran also has dropped to a minus-19 rating.
Perry scored his 15th goal just 2:37 in, ending a four-game pointless streak when Andrew Cogliano collected a turnover and fed him in front of Niemi's net.
The reigning NHL MVP is only slightly off the pace he set during his 50-goal campaign last season, when Perry scored his 15th goal on Dec. 12. He had 20 in early January last season before scoring 20 more goals in the Ducks' final 22 games.
The Sharks doubled Anaheim's shot total but couldn't score until Winchester's shot pinballed off the iron and barely crossed the goal line with 3:37 left in the second period.
Boudreau frequently has lamented the way Anaheim's shoulders slump after giving up a goal, and Ferriero capitalized on that tendency by corralling a loose puck in front and flinging it past Hiller moments later.
Shortly after San Jose killed a power play, Pavelski gave some cushion to the Sharks with 7:17 to play when Hiller yielded an atrocious rebound of Joe Thornton's shot, allowing Pavelski to score his 16th goal into a nearly open net.
Blake hadn't played since Oct. 14, when Sharks defenseman Brent Burns' skate inadvertently caused severe tendon damage in the 38-year-old veteran's left arm late in Anaheim's third game of the season. The Ducks' season unraveled shortly after the second-line forward underwent surgery, and two Anaheim coaches have been forced to mix and match left wings with Teemu Selanne and Saku Koivu.
NOTES: Sharks D Colin White missed his third straight game with an undisclosed lower body injury. ... Sharks C Patrick Marleau's secondary assist on Pavelski's goal was his first point in four games against Anaheim this season. ... Aleksandro Salei, the son of late former Anaheim defenseman Ruslan Salei, joined the Ducks on the ice before the game with fellow players from a junior hockey program in Aliso Viejo. Ruslan Salei was killed in September in the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash in Russia.
