Ducks Continue Blundering Here by Losing to Sharks

All those ticket-buyers with Mighty Duck T-shirts and Duck calls around their necks must feel as if they’re being bamboozled by now.

They get reports of an exciting, successful team that wins in such places as Maple Leaf Gardens and Chicago Stadium, then pay their money to watch an anemic, mistake-prone team at Anaheim Arena.

The Ducks turned in a performance marked by a blundering defense and shaky goaltending in a 5-2 loss to the San Jose Sharks Wednesday, and fell to 0-5 against the Sharks--one loss from being swept in the six-game season series.

The Sharks only have eight victories this season that didn’t come against the Ducks.

The Ducks’ record at Anaheim Arena fell to 4-14-2, and the home crowd hasn’t seen the Ducks win in a month, not since an overtime victory over St. Louis Dec. 12.

And still they come--17,174, the fourth sellout in a row.

Coach Ron Wilson and his players are left to try to solve the riddle: What to do about a team that wins when it isn’t supposed to on the road, then loses when it’s supposed to win against lesser competition at home?

“Maybe reverse sweater night? I don’t know,” Wilson said. “I really don’t know what to say. The players are having a meeting right now. Ask the players, I’m going to ask the players myself tomorrow why we don’t play with the same intensity at home. Maybe it’s the weather, the palm trees. I want to hear what their excuses are because I’m sure they have a number of them.”

Team captain Troy Loney called the meeting, and there was a crisis atmosphere afterward.

“We’ve got to figure this thing out at home. It’s not doing anybody any good, the situation that’s going on,” Loney said. “We like to try to work things out ourselves. We all have different little ideas. We’d like to try to make this more of a road game. We should really be happy to come home and play. Right now it’s just not happening.”

Said right wing Terry Yake: “The bottom line is it’s got to come from inside. I don’t care what you’re wearing, what you eat during the day or where you sleep. It’s got to come from inside--preparation, right from the morning skate.

“That’s the bottom line. I’ve tried to make excuses before, and I’m tired of it right now.”

The Sharks, who managed only 10 shots on goal against the Kings in a 2-2 tie Tuesday, had 19 against the Ducks, but scored on four of six in the second period.

Johan Garpenlov and Sergei Makarov each had two goals, and Igor Larionov and Makarov had four points each.

The Ducks’ success has been built on defense and goaltending, and both were off Wednesday. Wilson said the best defenseman was Don McSween, who signed a one-year contract with the Ducks after arriving from minor league San Diego Tuesday.

Goaltender Guy Hebert entered the game with a 2.74 goals-against average, but left in the second period after giving up a goal in the first and three in the first 6:28 of the second.

Those 6 1/2 minutes were his undoing. At 1:25 of the second, Makarov picked up the puck in the neutral zone, skated in and scored with a rising shot that skipped off Hebert’s left shoulder and into the net for a 2-0 lead.

The Ducks scored a power-play goal at 3:08 on defenseman Bill Houlder’s shot from the left circle with Jaroslav Otevrel off for hooking. It was Houlder’s fifth goal in the last four games.

Houlder’s goal only interrupted the meltdown, though. Larionov scored the Sharks’ second goal of the period at 4:03, when he eluded the reach of defenseman David Williams’ stick, then threw a shot at Hebert that landed in the crease and bounced in. Larionov appeared to be laughing at his good fortune as he headed to the bench.

Hebert’s last act was to watch Garpenlov score his second goal of the game after waltzing into the crease alone, gliding and cutting and finally putting it past Hebert.

Wilson took the opportunity to send in Tugnutt, who hadn’t been very sharp in Monday’s 6-4 loss to Detroit.

Less than 2 1/2 minutes later, and the Sharks with a two-man advantage, Tugnutt fell victim too. Makarov’s shot from behind the goal line went in off the back of Tugnutt’s stick.