Sharks Take Bite Out of Ducks

The Mighty Ducks need help, and Paul Kariya might not be enough.

The Ducks gave up an incredible three short-handed goals in a 4-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks Friday night at the Pond.

Seven games into the season, the Ducks are 1-4-2, the first time in their four-year existence they have gone this deep into the season without notching their second victory.

It doesn’t qualify as their worst start because they had the same number of points--four--at this juncture last year. But it qualifies as their most disappointing because the Ducks have Teemu Selanne, Jari Kurri and expectations.

Plenty of fans among the crowd of 17,174 let the Ducks know they’re not meeting those expectations after another bust of a third period.

“Paul’s eventually going to come in on his white horse, but he’s not there right now,” Duck Coach Ron Wilson said. “We can’t hide behind that excuse.”

The Ducks went on third-period power plays trailing by one goal, only to give up two short-handed goals within two minutes, one to Darren Turcotte and the other to Ron Sutter.

“We made far too many mistakes,” Wilson said. “It looked worse on the power play, but there were a lot of other times we made mental mistakes, too. Some guys aren’t ready to play.”

The three short-handed goals were club records--a negative one for the Ducks, a positive one for the Sharks.

With a power play that’s this dangerous, the Ducks should try a football ploy. Can they decline the penalty?

The power play showed promise early this season and it ought to, with two past 70-goal scorers on it in Selanne and Kurri.

The Ducks started the season with three goals in their first nine opportunities with a man advantage, but the power play is in disarray now. With the defense corps unsettled, different players are manning the points. Overall, the Ducks have scored on four of 33.

Selanne’s hot start has cooled as well, in part because his line is the only one opponents need to worry about, which is one reason Wilson splits Kurri and Selanne at times. Selanne had 10 points after four games and was leading the league in scoring. Since then, he has been held to one goal in three games.

“Teemu was getting frustrated because he wasn’t getting the puck at times, and I can understand that,” Wilson said.

San Jose is the Ducks’ company at the bottom of the Pacific Division, and both teams came into the game with struggling defenses. Surprisingly, there was still no score after the first period.

Owen Nolan gave San Jose a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 5:36 of the second when he broke in front of the net and his skittering shot got by goalie Guy Hebert. The Sharks had a man advantage after the Ducks’ David Karpa followed up a high-sticking altercation with Tony Granato with a shove that drew an additional roughing penalty.

Granato’s antagonistic style hasn’t changed even though he is playing after recovering from brain surgery that ended his season--and ultimately his King career.

“From the first day of camp, Tony’s been banging, being a pest,” San Jose Coach Al Sims said. “He’s always making somebody so mad they want to take his head off.”

Jeff Friesen’s terrific short-handed effort put San Jose ahead, 2-0, at 12:54 of the second when he got out front on a breakaway, was hauled to his knees by Kurri, the only Duck in pursuit, but managed to sweep the puck past Hebert anyway as he sprawled to the ice. The goal was Friesen’s fourth of the season.

The Ducks didn’t score until three-quarters of the way through the second period, on Ted Drury’s unassisted goal on a shot from the far side of the right circle after he stole the puck along the boards. That cut San Jose’s lead to 2-1 at 14:21.