Giguere Gets Little Help in Duck Loss

What the Mighty Ducks strived for this season and what they have wallowed in were on display against the San Jose Sharks Friday night. The gap is still too great.

Goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere was brilliant. Teemu Selanne and Paul Kariya each had a point. The Ducks skated hard and played physical.

Their reward was a 3-1 loss in front of 17,496 at the San Jose Arena.

Why? There was an easy answer for those few fans who have been paying attention.

The Ducks left Giguere exposed to a pelting. Their offense, with the exception of one Selanne goal, was null and void. Their gaffes provided opportunities.

Stephane Matteau scored two goals, both on breakaways. The Sharks smothered the Ducks, out-shooting them, 35-20.

Thus the Ducks, who had won back-to-back games and picked up points in five consecutive games, were left with another nondescript loss to toss onto the pile.

“Our mission the rest of the season is to learn how to win these type of games,” Selanne said. “That is what motivates us.”

The Ducks were motivated Friday. They were just out-motivated by a rough Shark team. The Ducks had only 11 shots through two periods. Far too few chances against goalie Evgeni Nabokov, who came into the game with a 2.00 goals-against average, the lowest in the NHL.

“We need to get 11 shots in one period, not two,” Duck Coach Guy Charron said.

That the Ducks remained close was because of the play of Giguere, who made one goal stand up in a victory over San Jose Wednesday. This time, though, he was asked to do too much.

The Sharks had several penalty shot-like chances. Giguere was up to most of those tests.

The Sharks’ Tony Granato burst in alone in the last minute of the first period, only to have Giguere flick the shot away with his glove. He got a pad on a Mike Ricci shot early in the second period. Moments later, Giguere stoned Scott Thornton, who had charged in unmolested to the net.

“I don’t care which team you are playing, but especially one of the best teams in the conference,” Charron said. “You give up three breakaways and you are asking for trouble.”

The Ducks asked and the Sharks answered in the second period. Giguere was left dangling one too many times.

Tony Hrkac left the puck on a silver platter at the blue line for Matteau, who raced in and stuck a shot under Giguere’s right arm for a 2-1 Shark lead at 17:28 of the second period.

Matteau scored again on a breakaway, giving the Sharks a 3-1 lead 11 minutes into the third period.

“It’s not like we played bad,” defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky said. “We just got to find that little extra to win these games.”

Or refrain from giving a little extra.

The Sharks’ Marco Sturm was called for boarding when he ran down Mike Crowley from behind. The Ducks’ Jim Cummins entered the fray and was called for roughing.

The Ducks not only lost Crowley, who was examined for a head injury and did not return, but the power-play opportunity.

“We get away from the things we need to do to be successful,” Charron said.

The Sharks took a 1-0 lead late in the first period. Giguere stopped Gary Suter’s blast from the point, then got a skate blade on Niklas Sundstrom’s point-blank rebound try. But Sundstrom picked up the puck and flipped it past Giguere, who was screened by a mass of bodies in front of the net.

The goal ended Giguere’s shutout streak at 101 minutes 31 seconds.

Selanne, who has made a career out of torturing the Sharks, got the Ducks even with his 36th goal in 41 games against San Jose.

Kariya fired a shot that Nabokov knocked down. Selanne came from the right and was tripped by the Sharks’ Mike Rathje. Not that it mattered. Selanne, falling down, reached out and slid the puck past Nabokov for his eighth goal in the last nine games.

That left the score tied, 1-1, less than two minutes into the second period. It was the same-old, same-old for the Ducks from then on.

“You know what, winning is a lot more fun than losing,” Tverdovsky said. “We want next season to start right now. We don’t want to finish the season on a bad note.”

Duck Notes

The Ducks had to do without left wing Marty McInnis, their second-leading goal scorer, against San Jose. McInnis flew home to be with his pregnant wife, Missy, who was having labor induced.

The couple already has a son, Luke.

“I guess we have to get one for the new baby McInnis,” Charron said.

Charron shuffled his lines around without McInnis, who has 19 goals and 38 points. Disappointing free agent German Titov returned to the lineup after sitting out four games because of a shoulder injury. The Ducks were 2-0-1-1 in those games.

Titov, who signed a three-year, $4.6-million contract last summer, has six goals and 14 points. He skated on the line with center Samuel Pahlsson and right wing Petr Tenkrat.

Rookie Jonas Ronnqvist took McInnis’ spot with center Matt Cullen and left wing Mike Leclerc.