Sharks Take Biggest Bite Out of Ducks : Hockey: San Jose makes it 6-0 against Anaheim this season with 6-0 victory, damaging playoff hopes.

If the Mighty Ducks’ spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs ends up being their La-Z-Boys, this is the game they will remember.

They came into their final game of the season against the San Jose Sharks saying it was probably their biggest of the year.

They left with their worst defeat of the season, a 6-0 loss at San Jose Arena in front of a sellout crowd of 17,190 that started a jubilant “Playoffs! Playoffs!” chant in the final minute.

It was basically over in 20 minutes, and the margin of defeat was a club-record--one goal worse than their 7-2 opening-night loss to Detroit.

“I thought we were ready,” Coach Ron Wilson said. “I think the players thought we were ready. San Jose was just more ready, I guess.”

The Ducks left knowing they have gone 0-6 against the conference rival they would have been voted most likely to beat.

Win this one, and they would have trailed the Sharks by one point with 17 games remaining in the race for the eighth and final Western Conference playoff spot. Instead they left trailing by five, with the Kings another point behind them.

“Going into the game, we were looking at it as a life-or-death thing,” forward Garry Valk said. “After the game, you like to look for positives. There are 17 games left. We’re not written off yet.”

Twenty minutes after this game started, the Ducks trailed, 3-0. San Jose hadn’t scored three goals in the first period all season. Wilson responded by pulling goalie Guy Hebert for Mikhail Shtalenkov at the start of the second period in a futile attempt to change the momentum.

Twenty minutes later, they were behind, 5-0.

The Ducks got scorched by the line of Igor Larionov, Sergei Makarov and Johan Garpenlov. Makarov and defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh each scored two goals, and those two and Larionov each had a club-record four points--a feat Larionov and Makarov had duplicated in a victory over the Ducks in January.

Playing with the defense pair of Jeff Norton and Ozolinsh, another former Soviet, the line gives San Jose a fearsome fivesome who can win a game by themselves. They basically did that Sunday, with a little help from goalie Arturs Irbe, a Latvian who made 25 saves to record the fourth shutout of his career and his second this season against the Ducks.

Now the Ducks are left to ponder playoff hopes that are growing dimmer.

“It’s only five points back. It’s not like it’s 30,” Wilson said. “I’m not going to put that much weight on this. We’ve still got 17 games left, and I’m sure we’re going to bounce back.

“(The Sharks) haven’t shaken us off all year, and they’ve beat us six times. They’ve beaten us, but now they’ve got to beat other people.”

Bob Corkum, one of the players who was supposed to try to slow down Larionov, was trying to see the positive side too.

“It was a tough loss, no doubt about it. The reality is we have 17 games left. I don’t consider us out of the playoff picture just yet. We’ve just got to pull up our pants and shake this one off and be ready Tuesday against Chicago.”

Forward Terry Yake agreed.

“We’ve lost six to these guys and four to L.A. and we’re still right in the hunt,” he said. “I predict, give us five or eight games and we’ll be right back within a point of them. The bottom line is we’ve got to beat more other teams because that all we’ve got left.”