Shark Power Play Cuts Down Ducks

Welcome to retro night at the Arrowhead Pond.

Hint No. 1: Former Duck Coach Ron Wilson was behind the bench. The opposing bench.

Hint No. 2: Old-time hockey -- no goals and plenty of massive hits -- returned for three periods of the Shark-Mighty Duck game on Friday night.

Who needs goals in regulation anyway? Let Dallas score nine goals against Chicago. Far more interesting to watch a flood of offense turn into a trickle, to observe power play after power play go for naught.

But it didn’t go on forever. In overtime, the Sharks broke through on the power play. Shark defenseman Kyle McLaren’s blast from the top of the right circle redirected off forward Marcel Goc and went past Duck goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere 51 seconds into overtime, giving the Sharks a 1-0 victory.

The Sharks went on the power play when Duck defenseman Ruslan Salei went off for elbowing Jonathan Cheechoo in the final minute of regulation.

“They had a four-on-three, the one-timer went off Goc’s body or stick or wherever up high and it was going to miss the net by about two feet,” Duck Coach Randy Carlyle said. “They dominated the game for the early part of the first two periods and I think we were fortunate our goaltender gave us a chance for a point.”

Giguere, who faced 32 shots, requested that the goal be reviewed by officials.

“I just wanted to make sure it was a good goal,” he said. “It got deflected in front and sometimes you don’t see it very well. So I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t a high stick. I didn’t think it was.”

The Ducks had been trying to set a franchise record by winning their seventh straight game at home. But it wasn’t to be with just five shots on goal in the first period, and 12 through two, and by going 0 for 6 on the power play.

Which leads to another question: Where has the offense gone?

At least on this night, for the Ducks, a search party might have found it on the East side of the Pond. That’s where injured Duck center Sergei Fedorov was spotted hard at work, assisting behind the cash register during the reopening of the franchise’s team store.

It might have been the best assist of the night. This wasn’t supposed to be happening in the new, new NHL.

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The game was stopped for a couple of minutes in the third period when left wing Todd Fedoruk went down along the right-wing boards in the Sharks’ zone. He was helped off the ice and went to the dressing room.

It looked as though Fedoruk got twisted as he went to hit Shark defenseman Rob Davison. Fedoruk, playing with Teemu Selanne and Andy McDonald, had six assists in the last seven games before Friday. Fedoruk suffered a strained back and will be evaluated today.

Both starting goalies’ equipment was measured after the game and Giguere, smiling, said he passed.

“They can come in whenever they want,” he said. “They don’t tell you, obviously. It has to be a surprise. That’s the way it should be. You don’t want anybody to cheat.”