Suddenly, Ducks Are Limping to the Finish

It wasn’t long ago that the Mighty Ducks resembled the San Jose Sharks of today. More important, they need to find their former selves and fast.

As the Ducks’ sudden swoon continued before the Stanley Cup playoffs, they seemed content to watch Jonathan Cheechoo and Joe Thornton take them apart in a 6-3 loss Saturday at HP Pavilion that cemented the Sharks’ playoff position.

Cheechoo got his third hat trick against the Ducks this season and Thornton had a goal and two assists as the Sharks won their season-best eighth game in a row and clinched the No. 5 spot in the Western Conference to firm up a first-round series with Nashville.

In blowing past the stumbling Ducks in the standings, they also displayed the right way to enter the postseason. The Ducks, it seems, have lost the edge they played with for months.

“If we want to get back to our best, we need it for sure,” captain Scott Niedermayer said. “We need to attack. It’s pretty simple. If we are spectators even for a split second, it makes all the difference. When all five guys out there are jumping without any hesitation at all, then we’re a very good team.”

The Ducks (42-27-12) have their first three-game losing streak since November after clinching a playoff berth Monday night in Vancouver. Instead of facing the Predators, they will finish sixth or seventh and face either Calgary or Dallas.

They have one last chance to get their game together Monday night against Calgary at home.

“We have one more game to prepare for the playoffs,” goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere said. “We should stop worrying about which position we’re going to be in and stuff like that. That doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, what matters is going into the playoffs feeling good about yourself and playing well.”

The game was effectively decided in a disastrous first period for the Ducks, who for a time looked more like a team playing out the string than one preparing for a playoff run.

Thornton scored on the game’s first shot as he converted a feed from Nils Ekman only 21 seconds in to begin a three-goal onslaught. Cheechoo got his first on a power play and rookie Steve Bernier had a short-handed goal on a breakaway after the Sharks (44-26-11) killed a five-on-three Duck advantage.

Cheechoo made it 4-0 in the second period and scored an empty-net goal for his 56th of the season to overtake the New York Rangers’ Jaromir Jagr for the NHL goal-scoring lead. The third-year forward also had two assists for the first five-point game of his career.

“We got ourselves into some trouble maybe standing around watching Thornton and Cheechoo move the puck,” Duck Coach Randy Carlyle said. “That’s disaster when you do that.”

With the crowd chanting “M-V-P, M-V-P” at times, Thornton continued to build a case for winning the Hart Trophy with three more points to up his total to a league-leading 125. San Jose was 8-12-4 before trading for the big center Nov. 30 and 36-14-7 since.

“I don’t think there’s been any player in the league that’s been better than Joe Thornton in all aspects of the game,” Shark General Manager Doug Wilson said. “ ... It was like a clean slate for us [after the trade]. It’s like we’ve had two seasons in one.”

Ryan Getzlaf finally got the Ducks on the scoreboard when his 14th goal broke an 0-for-15 drought on the power play. The rookie forward faked a slap shot from the point and used Thornton as a screen before working a wrist shot through traffic.

Ekman, who also had three points, restored the four-goal advantage in the second period as Giguere was pulled at the intermission after giving up five goals in 18 shots.

As the Ducks trailed by four goals, Carlyle also sat Niedermayer in the third. Joffrey Lupul and Andy McDonald scored goals less than a minute apart midway through the period to give the Ducks a shred of momentum heading into the regular-season finale.

“We were desperate because we had to try to get something positive out of the game,” Carlyle said. “I’m sure every coach in those situations goes in the room and says the same thing. We had to find a positive to build on because we didn’t have anything going for ourselves.”