Mistakes Cost Ducks a Victory

The Mighty Ducks still envision themselves as a playoff team, but their breakdown Tuesday night against the San Jose Sharks wasn’t befitting a team with such aspirations.

The mistakes the Ducks made proved costly and San Jose’s Jonathan Cheechoo made them pay with his first three-goal game to lead the Sharks to a 4-2 victory at HP Pavilion.

Cheechoo changed the direction of the game in the third period when he was awarded a penalty shot after being taken down by the Ducks’ Keith Carney -- or when he fell down as the defenseman described it -- as he headed toward the net on a breakaway.

At the time, the Ducks were trailing, 2-1, while on a power play. Cheechoo flicked a quick wrist shot by Jean-Sebastien Giguere on his glove side for his second goal of the game.

“It’s just hard to believe that’s a penalty shot,” Carney said. “I’d have to watch it again. I tried to get at his stick and he tried to use his body to shield himself and fell backward.”

The penalty shot was the fourth against the Ducks this season, a statistic Coach Randy Carlyle mentioned several times afterward. They have yet to take one in a season where 49 have been called.

“I’ve never seen so many penalty shots being called,” Carlyle said.

Just 30 seconds later, Cheechoo busted through Francois Beauchemin and Jonathan Hedstrom to beat Giguere again and send a shower of caps onto the ice from the announced 16,172 in attendance.

Moments later, Giguere, who gave up four goals in 18 shots, was pulled in favor of Ilya Bryzgalov.

“They scored two quick goals so the game changed in a hurry,” forward Joffrey Lupul said. “It was 2-1 and we’re on a power play. The next thing you know, you look at the scoreboard and it’s 4-1.”

The night proved frustrating for the Ducks, who were 7-2-2 in their last 11 games and had the momentum of a 5-4 home victory Sunday night over the Sharks.

With Chris Kunitz already whistled for interference just 1 minute, 25 seconds into the game, the Ducks made a critical error when Hedstrom was assessed an automatic minor penalty for a face-off violation after Samuel Pahlsson was initially thrown out.

Cheechoo took advantage by scoring on the five-on-three power play and Scott Parker got his first goal since the 2002-03 season at the 3:27 mark for a 2-0 lead.

“You don’t spot a team 2-0 in the first five minutes and think that you’ve had a good outing,” Carlyle said.

The Ducks managed to climb back in the game with the help of the Sharks’ undisciplined play in the first period.

Petr Sykora scored on a five-on-three advantage for his seventh goal of the season with Scott Niedermayer assisting for his 500th point.

Teemu Selanne also scored against his old team, but that was it against Evgeni Nabokov, who made 33 saves for the Sharks.