The San Jose Sharks ended their six-game homestand on a negative note with a 2-1 loss to the Anaheim Ducks at SAP Center on Saturday night.
The Ducks didn’t waste any time getting on the board. Just 39 seconds into the opening period, Patrick Eaves fired a snap shot from the left circle and beat Martin Jones top-shelf for his 24th goal of the season.
The Sharks went on a two-man advantage after Joel Ward dropped the gloves with Ryan Kesler with 6:07 left in the period. However, San Jose didn’t capitalize on the two-man advantage.
Cam Fowler was called for tripping with 1:31 left on the clock. The Sharks capitalized on the man advantage to even the score 1-1 late in the period. Joe Thornton sent a pass to Logan Couture, who fired a snap shot into the net, beating Jonathan Bernier for a power-play goal and his 25th of the season.
These two teams skated to a 1-1 tie after 20 minutes. Shots were 11-8 in favor of the Ducks.
A turnover cost the Sharks at 7:31 of the second period as the puck went into their own net. Jakob Silfverberg scored an unassisted goal for his 20th of the season.
The Sharks trailed the Ducks 2-1 after 40 minutes. Shots (23-20) remain in favor of Anaheim.
Jannik Hansen took a hard hit in the corner in the middle of the third period and didn’t return. Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer told the media that he didn’t have an update on Hansen.
The Sharks (42-22-7) dropped a nail-biter against the Ducks (38-23-11) by a score of 2-1. Jones made 25 saves in a losing effort for San Jose.
“We just have to regroup and get ready for the next one,” Couture said.
“We had a lot of chances,” Ward said. “But we just couldn’t get them home…Again, we had a lot of chances, just came up short.”
Bernier finished with 33 saves in the Anaheim victory.
“I didn’t like our first 10 minutes,” DeBoer said. “But then it was a playoff type of atmosphere. We had enough opportunities to get three or four tonight, but we didn’t, and I have to give credit to their goalie (Bernier). They did a lot of good things.”
When asked if the injuries of David Schlemko and Melker Karlsson had an effect on the Sharks, DeBoer answered: “I think everyone’s dealing with injuries, but we have enough depth, and that shouldn’t matter. Those are good players obviously, but we got guys who jumped in tonight for them, and I thought (Michael) Haley had two or three really good chances. Also, (Marcus) Sorensen played a really good game, so I don’t think that’s an issue.
Notes
Scratched: Ryan Carpenter
Injured: Schlemko (lower body), Karlsson (lower body)
Couture played in his 500th NHL game.
Up Next
The Sharks kick off a four-game road trip on Tuesday night against the Dallas Stars (28-33-10) at 7:30 p.m. CST on CSN-CA, FS-SW.
