The Anaheim Ducks pulled away with a three-goal second period, and they snapped a three-game losing streak by beating the host San Jose Sharks 5-1 on Tuesday.
Nicolas Deslauriers and David Backes had a goal and an assist apiece, and Adam Henrique, Max Comtois and Isac Lundestrom also scored for Anaheim. John Gibson made 34 saves in the victory.
Patrick Marleau scored the lone goal for the Sharks, whose four-game winning streak ended. San Jose goalie Martin Jones made 29 saves.
Henrique opened up scoring at 5:55 of the first period with a short-sided shot that hopped Jones' shoulder. The Sharks made a push late in the period, but Gibson stymied their best attempts as Anaheim took the one-goal lead into the first intermission.
There were some fireworks with 6:09 left in the first frame when Anaheim's Sam Carrick tripped over Jones on a goal attempt and San Jose's Jeffrey Viel squared off with Carrick in an effort to defend his team's netminder. Carrick left the fisticuffs with bloody cuts on his face but returned to the game later after getting patched up.
Anaheim also got a boost at the end of the first period when San Jose forward Kevin Labanc went to the penalty box for holding the stick. With just a little over a minute left on the power play to start the second stanza, Comtois scored to increase the Ducks' lead 2-0 just 24 seconds into the period.
San Jose got a power-play opportunity on the following shift, and Marleau beat Gibson with a wrist shot to cut the deficit to 2-1 at the 1:29 mark.
Lundestrom responded with a wrist-shot goal at 2:44, giving Anaheim a 3-1 lead. After both teams were quiet for most of the rest of the period, Deslauriers' rebound of a Troy Terry shot upended Jones and added to make it a three-goal margin at 15:19.
Sharks head coach Bob Boughner chose to pull Jones for an extra skater with under eight minutes to play in the third period, and the Ducks capitalized as Backes scored an empty-net goal at 12:47 to make it 5-1.
--Field Level Media
Anaheim | San Jose | |
David Backes 2 | Points | Patrick Marleau 1 |
David Backes 1 | Goals | Patrick Marleau 1 |
David Backes 1 | Assists | Erik Karlsson 1 |
Max Comtois 1 | Power Play Goals | Patrick Marleau 1 |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | N/A |
John Gibson .971 | Save Percentage | Martin Jones .879 |
John Gibson 34 | Saves | Martin Jones 29 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Anaheim | 34 | 5 | 1-1 | 3-4 | 13 | 29 |
San Jose | 35 | 1 | 1-4 | 0-1 | 7 | 28 |