Photo credit: Alex Gallardo AP Photo 

~By Pearl Allison Lo

ANAHEIM– With both teams hot and mostly fresh from the All-Star break, the Ducks won first as they contained San Jose, 3-2.

Anaheim pulled into a tie for third place with the Arizona Coyotes in the Pacific with the win. It was the Ducks’ fourth straight win and their third straight versus the Sharks. San Jose had been perfect in regulation in their past 10 games. It was Anaheim goalie Frederik Andersen’s second straight game with at least 30 saves.

It was the highest scoring game of the season between both teams as the Sharks trailed the whole game. San Jose outshot the Ducks 32-25 and Anaheim outblocked the Sharks 23-13. San Jose’s Brent Burns had six of his attempts blocked and led all with five shots.

A shorthanded goal by the Ducks Hampus Lindholm was probably the worst result from special teams. Lindholm replied, “They were pushing us a little bit [at the time], but we were confident on the penalty kill. We got a break and Getzy [Ryan Getzlaf] made a heck of a pass to me. That was a big goal for us.”

In the first period, the Ducks looked like they were dominating and had the closer chances.

San Jose’s Justin Braun had a turnover in front of Andersen early.

With a quick release, Anaheim’s Rickard Rakell scored with 3:51 left, aided by Patrick Maroon and Corey Perry.  The Sharks challenged the call for offsides, but the goal stood.San Jose’s Joe Pavelski had three giveaways in the period as the Sharks were outhit 14-6. He ended up with the most giveaways overall with four.

Though the shots went down, the goals amped up in the second period.

2:43 in, San Jose’s Dainius Zubrus tipped in Brent Burns’ shot for his second goal to tie the game. Zubrus went five hole, also helped by Paul Martin.

The Sharks had mixed results when it came to special teams.

17 seconds later after Zubrus’ goal, San Jose got a power play. However, midway in, the Ducks’ Ryan Getzlaf went behind the net and then reversed direction, before he passed the puck up front to Lindholm. Lindholm made another angled shot against Jones, like the first goal, to score shorthanded from inside the circle at 4:19. With the assist, Getzlaf now has 499 and four assists in as many games.

Anaheim then doubled their lead at 12:07. Sharks’ goalie Martin Jones blocked Chris Stewart’s shot and Ryan Garbut got the rebound to score his first goal with the Ducks. Josh Manson also got an assist.

San Jose quickly got the goal back just over a minute later. Joonas Donskoi passed the puck to Tommy Wingels, who shot out from behind the net before scoring. Marc-Edouard Vlasic also aided.

However, 23 seconds later, Vlasic was called for hi-sticking and just over a minute later, the Sharks were down another man. Tommy Wingels, racing hard to the net, was called for goalie interference. Fortunately for San Jose, they were able to kill off the two penalties.

In the third, the Sharks kept shooting themselves in the foot with another 5-on-3. Martin was called for delay of game at 5:10 and during the penalty kill, Matt Nieto was called for hi-sticking. However, San Jose ended up unscathed again.

With 2:07 left, San Jose had one last chance but were unable to capitalize.

By the end of the second, they were outhit 22-14, but outhit Anaheim 9-3 in the final stanza.

Game notes: The Ducks’ Cam Fowler played 20:16, had two giveaways, one takeaway and blocked two shots in his return. There were at least four broken or lost sticks during the game. The Sharks play the St. Louis Blues Thursday at 5pm in their second of a four game road trip.