Ducks Finally Pull Sharks’ Teeth : Hockey: San Jose holds 3-0 lead, then is beaten by Anaheim for the first time in franchise history, 6-3.

Thousands of jagged white shark’s teeth bobbed menacingly among the crowd of 17,190 Saturday night at San Jose Arena, but the Mighty Ducks exposed them for what they were.

Paper.

Torn apart by the Sharks last season, the Mighty Ducks drew blood for the first time in seven meetings Saturday, beating San Jose, 6-3.

Arturs Irbe, who shut out the Kings on Friday night, allowed five goals before Peter Douris scored an empty-net goal with two seconds left after Irbe was pulled for an extra attacker.

“I tell you what, it didn’t matter who it was, the whole team was in need of a victory tonight, but it was even sweeter that it came against the Sharks because of what they did to us last year,” left wing Garry Valk said.

Mikhail Shtalenkov started as the Ducks’ goaltender and faltered quickly, allowing a goal 31 seconds into the game and giving up three on the Sharks’ first 11 shots. Coach Ron Wilson pulled him at 13:19 of the first period, sending in Guy Hebert, who made 18 saves and shut out the Sharks the rest of the way. Hebert has stopped 86 of the last 89 shots he has faced.

Todd Krygier brought the Ducks back with two second-period goals. He tied the score, 3-3, after Stephan Lebeau flipped the puck into the Ducks’ offensive zone. Krygier chased it down and beat Irbe.

He gave the Ducks a 4-3 lead at 15:47 of the second period when he scored on his second attempt on a loose puck in the slot.

Douris also scored twice, and Lebeau had three points, assisting on both of Krygier’s goals and scoring his first goal of the season in the first period.

Wilson finally scratched an itch that has been bothering him, striking veteran defenseman Tom Kurvers from the lineup. Kurvers, acquired last summer to bolster a power play that was the NHL’s worst, has been a disaster defensively and the power play still ranks last in the league. Worse, Kurvers had been on the ice for all six goals against the Duck power play, which has contributed considerably to his plus-minus rating of minus nine.

“You can’t be minus nine at this level and have one goal for and six against on the power play and deserve a spot on the power play or even in the lineup,” Wilson said. “Unless things change, he won’t be in for a while, but believe me, things can change rapidly.”

The team hadn’t scored a power-play goal in the last seven games, going 0 for 30. That became 0 for 31, but then the streak was broken late in the first period when Anatoli Semenov was credited with a power-play goal that cut San Jose’s lead to 3-2 at 17:49.

Kurvers said he didn’t have to miss a game to get Wilson’s message.

“The message has been clear for a while,” he said. “The struggles on the power play have been notable.

“I don’t have any profound reasons or excuses. You’ve got to bounce back. The bottom line is nothing I can say can convince anybody. You have to show it on the ice.”

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Duck Notes

The slash by forward Duck forward Tim Sweeney that broke the finger of Calgary’s Phil Housley on Feb. 9 will cost Sweeney about $14,500. The NHL gave Sweeney a four-game suspension without pay and a $500 fine on Friday. . . . Center Bob Corkum missed a second consecutive game because of post-concussion syndrome. Corkum suffered a concussion last Sunday when Edmonton’s Bryan Marchment threw an elbow to his head in the first period.