End of the road for Ducks

Maybe it was a winding, cross-country trip that finally took its toll.

Or maybe it was a wipeout by the Ducks in the first meeting of the season that was front and center on the minds of an angry San Jose Sharks team.

The Ducks’ bid at coming home with a historic trip was denied Saturday night when Joe Thornton’s power-play goal with 2 minutes 13 seconds remaining gave the Sharks a 4-3 victory at HP Pavilion.

The decisive goal came courtesy of the reigning most valuable player, whose wrist shot from the right circle deflected off Ducks defenseman Scott Niedermayer past goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

“It went off my shin pad,” said Niedermayer, who was battling with Jonathan Cheechoo in front of the net. “I don’t think [Cheechoo] touched it. It was a smart play. Any time you get it to the net, things happen.”

The Ducks (25-4-6) won the first four games of a 10-day trip that began last week in Washington and moved to Tampa Bay, Florida and Atlanta. The Ducks had won seven in a row overall on the road.

Dustin Penner’s power-play goal at 12:15 of the third gave them an opportunity to return to Anaheim with the first 5-0 trip in the franchise’s 13-year history. Instead, they lost their first regulation game when tied or leading after two periods as their five-game winning streak ended.

“We’ve had lots of bounces go our way,” Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle said. “That’s the way it goes. They got the power-play goal. We had our chances.”

The second meeting between leading contenders for the Pacific Division title looked more like the type of game many expected before the season. It was a playoff-type atmosphere that looked nothing like the Ducks’ 5-0 rout at home on Nov. 21.

Penner’s goal appeared to give the Ducks the final lift they needed in a back-and-forth tussle but that momentum was lost when Cheechoo tied the score only 31 seconds later on a goal Carlyle disputed afterward.

“Thornton clearly had both feet over the blue line before the puck had crossed the blue line,” Carlyle said. “To me, that’s offside. But that’s the way it goes. We move on.”

The Ducks had a 2-0 lead on Corey Perry’s goal that sneaked past San Jose goalie Evgeni Nabokov on the short side after the second-year right wing got a nice off-the-boards pass from rookie center Ryan Shannon.

Almost inexplicably, the NHL’s best team began to look like a junior outfit. If they weren’t able to clear the puck, the Ducks were headed to the penalty box.

After Sharks captain Patrick Marleau cut the lead in half at 6:19 of the second, Mark Smith buried a power-play goal past Giguere when three Ducks couldn’t intercept Thornton’s pass through the crease.

They spent the rest of the period trying to hold off the hard-charging Sharks. Giguere did much of the work as he covered up for his teammates’ mistakes.

Curtis Brown got a clean breakaway when Chris Pronger fell at the blue line but couldn’t put a backhand shot on net. Mike Grier also went in alone for a short-handed opportunity but was rebuffed by Giguere, who made 25 saves.

Marleau had a chance to give San Jose the lead when he picked off Niedermayer’s poor first pass in the Ducks’ zone but Giguere foiled him with an outstanding leg save.

eric.stephens@latimes.com