Mighty Ducks Outlast Sharks in Final Exhibition Game

The fledgling Mighty Ducks beat the still-young San Jose Sharks, 3-2, when Anatoli Semenov shoved in a rebound with 3.6 seconds left in overtime Sunday at Anaheim Arena.

Semenov scored after Shark goaltender Wade Flaherty stopped Sean Hill’s slap shot as time ran down in front of a crowd of 14,060. “I was just lucky,” Semenov said. “I had lots of chances tonight, but no luck--before the last three seconds.”

The power play began with 1:31 remaining after the Sharks were called for too many men on the ice.

It was the Ducks’ second exhibition victory, and their third overtime in five exhibition games. They open the regular season at home Friday against Detroit.

The Ducks (2-2-1), who outshot the Sharks, 37-13, beat a team that should be their closest rival in the Pacific Division, both in the standings and in the emotions of Duck General Manager Jack Ferreira. He helped launch the Sharks, starting their third season, but was fired in a front-office power struggle after the first season.

Coach Ron Wilson was a bit riled by the Sharks, who didn’t play nine of their top 10 scorers in the exhibition season.

“I’m a little upset with the lineup San Jose brought. It was an embarrassment to our fans,” Wilson said. “I’ll just be blunt. It wasn’t an NHL lineup. Too bad it wasn’t a blowout, but 3-2 in overtime will help our team’s confidence.”

San Jose took a 2-0 lead in the first 3 minutes 8 seconds of the game on goals after Duck giveaways around their net.

But those two shots were the only ones the Sharks managed until midway through the second period, creating a quirky statistic for goaltender Ron Tugnutt, who once made 70 saves in a game for Quebec. This time he made no saves, playing the first 29:33. He faced only two shots, which he did not stop, before giving way to Guy Hebert. Hebert made 11 saves.

Right wing Todd Ewen and center Bob Corkum scored for the Ducks. Left wing David Bruce and defenseman Shawn Cronin scored for the Sharks, 2-4-1 in exhibition games.

*

The Ducks moved to strengthen their team by picking up Vancouver winger Garry Valk in the waiver draft Sunday. Valk had six goals and seven assists in 48 games in a checking role last season, when Wilson was a Vancouver assistant. The Ducks are hoping he can add some scoring.