Frank Vatrano scores twice as Ducks beat Sharks for seventh win in nine games
Frank Vatrano scored twice in the first period and the Ducks beat the San Jose Sharks 4-1 on Sunday.
Mason McTavish and Radko Gudas also scored, John Gibson made 25 saves and the Ducks ended a two-game losing streak and won for the seventh time in nine games.
Vatrano’s goals increased his team lead to 11 and gave him three multigoal games to go along with hat tricks Oct. 15 at home against Carolina and Oct. 28 at Pittsburgh.
Ducks rookie Leo Carlsson becomes the youngest player in franchise history to score three goals in a game during a 6-3 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers.
“I’m just trying to put the puck in the net and play hard every single night and usually when you play the right way, goals and points come,” Vatrano said. “It’s early in the season and you just have to keep building game after game.”
Luke Kunin scored for the Sharks, while Mackenzie Blackwood made 40 saves. San Jose has lost two straight after getting its first two wins of the season following an 0-10-1 start.
San Jose dropped to 0-7 on the road and has totaled four goals away from home. The Sharks gave up a pair of goals on five Ducks power-play chances.
“You just can’t take some of those penalties,” Sharks coach David Quinn said. “We were a little bit short-handed up front today. After not taking any (penalties) against Vegas (on Friday), we took a couple of bad ones tonight that cost us.”
Vatrano’s initial goal gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead 4:49 into the game when he tipped a blast from Ilya Lyubushkin, sending the puck through the legs of Blackwood.
Kunin tied it with 6:55 remaining in the opening period. Tomas Hertl took a shot from close range that was saved by Gibson, with Kunin cleaning up the loose puck for his second of the season.
Vatrano put the Ducks back on top again with 1:38 left in the first when he fired a one-time blast off a pass from Cam Fowler and scored from the top of the right circle on the power play.
Anaheim delivered again on the power play at with 1:52 left in the third for a 3-1 advantage. McTavish charged the Sharks’ goal and flipped a shot past Blackwood off a pass from rookie Leo Carlsson for his seventh of the season.
Anaheim has 10 power-play goals in its last seven games.
“When the game starts you gave to see what’s in front of you and make the play,” Vatrano said. “I think that’s just playing simple on the power play and making the plays we know that we need to make.”
Coach Greg Cronin is behind the changed Ducks and their six-game winning streak, the latest a win Sunday to hand defending champion Vegas its first regulation loss.
Just 49 seconds later the Ducks took a 4-1 lead when Gudas fired a shot from the right point. The puck deflected high in the air off the stick of San Jose’s Mike Hoffman and over Blackwood for Gudas’ second of the season.
“It’s early in the season but I think we are making steps in the right direction,” Gudas said. “We’re doing a lot of good things out there. We’re staying defensive in a lot of situations and as the season continues it’s going to work in our favor that we’re in good spots in the D-zone. We’re playing right most of the time.”
The Sharks were 0 for 2 on their own power-play chances.
“We just don’t have a work ethic on our power play right now,” Quinn said. “You have to work at it. You just can’t say, ‘We have five and they have four.’ That’s not how this works. We’re just not getting anything out of it right now.”
The Ducks were without forward Trevor Zegras (lower body) for the second consecutive game, while the Sharks were missing forward Anthony Duclair (illness) for the second contest in a row.
Up next for the Ducks: At Nashville on Tuesday night.
