Ducks Threaten Shake-up

The Mighty Ducks got it all wrong again Sunday in a dreary 4-2 loss to the San Jose Sharks before an announced sellout crowd of 17,174 at the Pond.

The Ducks gave up a short-handed goal 1:44 into the game, played poor defense, took dumb penalties, failed to kill them off and couldn’t score on their power play.

“We just keep finding ways to lose right now,” Coach Pierre Page said after the Ducks’ third consecutive loss and sixth in seven games.

Page and right wing Teemu Selanne both said sweeping roster changes could be made soon if a dramatic turnaround doesn’t occur.

“This is getting ridiculous,” Page said. “The players have got to do something about it. Either they make positive changes or we [the coaching staff and management] do. I hope the players realize they’ve got to do something positive.”

Page’s postgame message got through to Selanne, all right.

“Sooner or later guys are going to start losing their jobs if we don’t start winning some games,” Selanne said. “It’s a wake-up call for everybody here. If we don’t make the difference, management is going to make the difference. We can’t continue like this.

“Whatever it takes, we are not paying the price right now.”

Selanne scored his 27th and 28th goals of the season to wrestle the NHL lead away from Philadelphia’s John LeClair, who has 26. It also gave Selanne 27 goals in 25 games against the Sharks.

Paul Kariya assisted on both goals.

Selanne had six shots on net and Kariya five. Offense from others was tough to come by, however.

John MacLean scored two goals and Murray Craven and Magnus Ragnarsson also scored for San Jose, which outshot the Ducks, 30-25.

“I tried about 52 different line combinations to try to find something else [offensively],” Page said. “Our top line has 26 goals in five-on-five situations. Our second line has six goals five on five. Our third line and our fourth lines each have five goals five on five.

“That’s got to be corrected.”

There were defensive lapses too. But none as troubling as the breakdowns in Friday’s 6-2 loss to the Phoenix Coyotes or Wednesday’s 6-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Craven’s short-handed goal early in the game and Ragnarsson’s late in the second period were backbreakers.

Selanne scored the second of his two goals at 11:02 of the second period to cut the Shark lead to 3-2. But with rookie defenseman Pavel Trnka in the penalty box for hooking San Jose’s Tony Granato, Ragnarsson scored from the high slot at 15:12.

The Ducks had an apparent third-period goal by Tomas Sandstrom washed out by video-replay goal judge Tom Wardell but refused to second-guess the call.

In the end, the Ducks said there were far too many other troubling factors that led to Sunday’s defeat to fault the replay official.

Toughest to stomach for the Ducks was the continued ineffectiveness of their special teams.

In addition to giving up the first-period short-handed goal, they gave up two power-play goals and failed to score on six chances with the man advantage.

“We got a good breakout, then Sandstrom falls down and we give up a ‘shorty,’ ” Page said. “Nice way to start a hockey game.”