Ducks Lose More Than Just a Game : Hockey: They also give up more ground in playoff race, as they fall, 6-0, to Sharks.

If the Mighty Ducks’ berth 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 against the San Jose Sharks this season saying it was probably their biggest of the year.

They left with their worst defeat yet, 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.

The game 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 the Detroit Red Wings.

“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.”

Win this one, and the Ducks 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 trail by five, with the Kings another point behind them.

The Ducks have gone 0-6 against the conference rival they would have been voted most likely to beat--and they are 0-10 against the Sharks and Kings.

“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.”

They didn’t get the game they said they had to have. Now they’re looking for hope.

“We’ve lost six to these guys and four to L.A., and we’re still right in the hunt,” Terry Yake said. “I predict, give us five or eight games and we’ll be right back within a point of them.”

But he knows the math is catching up to them.

“We’re down to 17 games. If we win 10 of them, that’s 20 points. That means they’ve got to win seven of 18. They’ve got a game in hand. It makes it a tougher road for us.”

Twenty minutes after the game started, the Ducks trailed, 3-0. 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 and Sergei Makarov--two aging former Soviet superstars--and Johan Garpenlov, who is Swedish. 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 Ozolinsh, another former Soviet, and Jeff Norton, the line gives San Jose a fearsome fivesome that can win a game alone. The unit 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.

One statistic gives ample testimony to how much Larionov means to the Sharks. He has missed 35 games this season, and the Sharks won only two of them.

The Ducks were focusing on the Larionov line, but it didn’t make any difference. The Europeans’ playmaking and passing finesse left the Ducks looking helpless, and the Sharks took advantage of the Ducks’ excitement by burning them with faked shots.

“All our players were afraid of them tonight,” Wilson said. “They were intimidated by Larionov and Makarov, who are two great hockey players, but we still haven’t figured out a way to play against them.”

A victory would have made the world look a lot different.

“It definitely would have been a big boost,” center Bob Corkum said. “It was a tough loss, no doubt about it. The reality is we have 17 games left. We’ve just got to pull up our pants and shake this one off and be ready Tuesday against Chicago.”