No Matter Who Is in the Net, Ducks Can’t Stop Sharks

The Mighty Ducks had a goaltending battle on their hands Tuesday night.

Guy Hebert and Mikhail Shtalenkov were both battling the puck.

And losing.

As a result, the Ducks got beaten, 7-4, by the San Jose Sharks--a team that had won only six games this season--while watching the Sharks’ Owen Nolan score four goals in two periods.

Hebert, once considered the Ducks’ No. 1 goalie, started for only the third time in 11 games and gave up a goal 1:22 into the game, another 70 seconds later and a third before the first period was over.

“We came out flat in the first period and put ourselves behind the eight ball right away,down 3-0” said defenseman David Karpa. “I don’t know if guys weren’t ready or what. It’s something we have to figure out as a team.”

Duck Coach Ron Wilson responded to the three goals by replacing Hebert with Shtalenkov.

“You’re hoping to shake the team up, down 3-0,” Wilson said. “I think it worked, but we took a bad penalty and got down, 4-0. We got back to 4-2, but after that we took bad penalties and it killed us.”

Shtalenkov gave up a goal 57 seconds into the second and let in a total of four in the period, two on power plays.

One goalie might have been too rested; the other probably was too tired. In any case, with no one left to turn to, Wilson left Shtalenkov in for the third and he didn’t allow a goal on six shots in the final 20 minutes.

The goaltenders weren’t good, but hardly any of the other Ducks were either, coming out flat and giving up outnumbered rush after outnumbered rush.

Nolan’s five-point game--he also had an assist--seemed so easy that when he scored his fourth goal at 13:57 of the second period, he raised his arms to his sides as if to say, “Simple, huh?”

It was the first four-goal game of Nolan’s career and the first in Shark history. The hat trick was the eighth of Nolan’s career, and the first in the three-season history of The Pond of Anaheim.

Nolan got his third goal when the Sharks were on a five-on-three power play at 13:23 of the second, then added to it with his 16th of the season 34 seconds later, with San Jose still holding a man advantage.

The Ducks trailed by as much as 7-2, and the crowd turned so surly that it booed the attendance when the scoreboard video flashed 17,174. That’s the official capacity, but the no-show count has been sky-high lately, reaching 2,300 the previous game against Toronto on Sunday.

Anyone searching for positives? Well, at least the Ducks didn’t have to worry about blowing another third-period lead. They never had a lead.

Duck Notes

Left wing Patrik Carnback, right wing Peter Douris and defensemen Robert Dirk and Bobby Dollas scored for the Ducks. . . . Right wing Todd Ewen returned after a 19-game absence because of hand surgery, giving the Ducks the toughness they’ve missed at times. “You can only ride the bike so long,” Ewen said. “My [behind] is in the shape of a bicycle seat.” . . . Center David Sacco, the younger brother of Duck winger Joe Sacco, extended his career-high point streak to six games with a second-period assist. . . . Steve Rucchin and Shaun Van Allen, the injured centers the Ducks desperately miss, are probably both at least a couple of weeks from returning but are expected to join the team on the next trip beginning Jan. 5 at Calgary.