Ducks Get Monkey Business, Not Rally

Maybe it’s time for the Mighty Ducks to start borrowing the Angels’ rally monkey for good luck, because the breaks they got Sunday night against San Jose had the smell of a rally skunk.

“Things are not going easy for us,” said winger Petr Sykora, who had a game-tying third-period goal called off in a 4-3 loss to the Sharks.

“We have to work for every single goal and every single point. Today was another good example for us where we worked very hard as a team but we just didn’t get the bounces.”

With a chance to extend their modest unbeaten streak to three games, the Ducks played well enough to win but came up short against the Sharks, who won behind two goals by Mike Ricci and 16 saves by Evgeni Nabokov.

The turning point came midway in the third period when Sykora deflected in an apparent goal off a blue line shot by defenseman Ruslan Salei that would have tied the score, 3-3.

But referee Mike Hasenfratz saw things differently and ruled that Salei redirected the puck with a high stick and took away the goal.

“If that’s a goal ... it’s a totally different game,” said Sykora, who scored his fourth goal this season in the second period.

“I tipped the puck and thought for sure that it was a goal. It happened really quickly. You have to ask the officials about what happened but in my belief, it was a goal.”

After Hasenfratz waved off Sykora’s goal, the Ducks had a little letdown and found themselves playing shorthanded less than three minutes later when defenseman Niclas Havelid was called for hooking.

That penalty set up Ricci’s second power-play goal of the game, which put the Sharks ahead, 4-2, at 14:41.

Center Steve Rucchin cut San Jose’s lead in half when he scored his fourth goal this season at 15:07, but the Ducks (3-6-3) couldn’t get any closer.

“We did a lot of good things and that’s the frustrating part,” Duck Coach Mike Babcock said. “We’re trying to build confidence and we feel that we should have gotten points tonight.”

Although the game was not a sellout, with an announced crowd of 15,157, the Arrowhead Pond was a noisy place, thanks to thousands of noise sticks given to everyone in attendance.

And the Ducks gave the crowd something to cheer for early when, on the first shift, rookie Stanislav Chistov scored his third goal 19 seconds into the game.

Chistov caught the Sharks sleeping when he gathered in a pass from Havelid near the blue line on the left side, skated in front of San Jose’s Bryan Marchment and scored against Nabokov.

The Ducks continued to control play in the first period but were still tied at the first intermission after former Duck Teemu Selanne scored for San Jose at 13:17 with an assist from Patrick Marleau.

San Jose took its first lead in the second period when Owen Nolan skated around defenseman Fredrik Olausson, who returned to the lineup after being benched for two games, and scored a short-handed goal at 7:14.

The Sharks’ lead lasted only 15 seconds and was erased by Sykora, who scored on a power play after a great pass from Kariya to tie the score, 2-2.

The Ducks, however, surrendered the lead before the period ended, thanks to a cross-checking penalty called on Olausson.

Ricci was able to score his first power-play goal when he redirected a blue line shot by Mike Rathje to put the Sharks ahead, 3-2, at 17:09.