Ducks surprise Sharks and the home crowd

Two moments that struck like bolts of lightning Sunday night sent the San Jose Sharks looking for cover and the thunder that followed at the Honda Center was the sound of 17,174 people in delirium.

Less than a minute away from a key loss to the NHL’s best road team, the Ducks snatched a win away from their Pacific Division rival with an improbable 4-3 overtime victory that extended their home winning streak to six games.

Lightning isn’t supposed to strike twice in the same spot but tell that to the Sharks, whose franchise-record 10-game road winning streak came to an end. And the Ducks can thank Doug Weight and Francois Beauchemin directly.

Weight scored on a carom shot off Sharks defender Alexei Semenov with 28 seconds left in regulation and Beauchemin finished an odd-man rush 33 seconds into overtime to spoil the NHL debut of Thomas Greiss, who gave All-Star goalie Evgeni Nabokov his first rest after 43 consecutive starts.

The Ducks (24-17-6) have won nine of 13 games but they could only gain one more point on the first-place Sharks as they closed to within three points with second-place Dallas coming in Tuesday. But they’ll gladly take it after erasing a 3-1 second-period deficit.

“On any streak, you’re going to have some luck that goes with it,” Coach Randy Carlyle said. “And tonight we didn’t play to the level that we have been playing. But we still found a way to get it done. And that’s a credit to our players.”

It appeared as if the Sharks (25-12-7) would exorcise a few demons in their dealings with the Ducks.

San Jose had won seven of eight games since a 5-2 home loss to the Ducks on Dec. 22 that was their fourth in five meetings. The last time the Sharks had lost on the road was Nov. 9 in Anaheim, a 3-2 defeat in which the Ducks needed a shootout to win.

And there appeared to be clear skies ahead for the Sharks when goals by Jeremy Roenick, Torrey Mitchell and Milan Michalek gave them a 3-1 lead at the 14-minute 2-second mark of the second period. The clouds began to form when Corey Perry’s 24th goal made it a one-goal game.

The Ducks had pulled goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere for an extra attacker with a minute left. Moments later, Semenov couldn’t clear the puck out of the San Jose zone and Chris Pronger grabbed it at the blue line and passed it to Weight.

Semenov got back to defend the net in front of Greiss when Weight, who was looking to hit Perry across the ice, sent in a hard drive that went off the defenseman’s right skate and into the net.

“Certainly I wasn’t aiming at his skate,” Weight said sheepishly. “It’s always good to say you meant to do it but there’s certain times where you’ve got to draw the line.

“I saw Perry going over there and a couple of guys through to the net so I was just trying to fire through and get some action in there and see what happens. It was a fortunate bounce.”

The Ducks seized the momentum. With four skaters per side in overtime, Scott Niedermayer hit Todd Marchant with a pass in stride and Marchant put the puck on Beauchemin’s stick as the defenseman cut to the net.

It ended with Beauchemin getting his first goal since the Oct. 10 home opener, another game winner that beat Boston.

The Ducks were able to win again without center Samuel Pahlsson, who sat out his ninth consecutive game because of an abdominal strain.

Winger George Parros also wasn’t available because of a bruised right knee.

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eric.stephens@latimes.com