By Mary Walsh

ANAHEIM– The San Jose Sharks fell 6-1 to the Anaheim Ducks Thursday. Ducks defenseman John Carlson scored his first NHL hat trick in over 1100 games. Leo Carlsson, Alex Killorn and Frank Vatrano scored as well. Lukas Dostal made 18 saves for the win. Shakir Mukhamadullin scored the Sharks goal. Yaroslav Askarov made 24 saves in the loss.

After the game, Sharks forward Kiefer Sherwood said: “I think we gotta look inwards here a little bit, you know. We’re changing a standard. It’s not okay to lose, it’s not okay to lose battles and lose pks and just shifts on end. We gotta change things. Yeah, just not good enough tonight.”

Sharks Head Coach Ryan Warsofsky said:

“We really complicate the game, I would say. With some execution, with some… the way you have to play the game this time of year especially, we make it difficult on ourselves. We really beat ourselves. That’s no disrespect to the Anaheim Ducks, they completely outplayed us tonight but we make it really easy for teams to platy against us.”

Leo Carlsson scored the first goal of the game at 2:59. He caught the puck in the defensive zone and carried it all the way down to the Sharks net before taking the shot. Assists went to Chris Kreider and Pavel Mintyukov.

John Carlson scored with a slap shot from just inside the blue line. Assists went to Mikael Grandlund and Mintyukov.

The Ducks outshot the Sharks 10-5 in the first period with no penalties called against either team.

Alex Killorn scored at 5:15 of the second period, the only goal of the middle frame. Killorn and Beckett Sennecke skated into the zone two on one against Nick Leddy. Sennecke made the pass at the last moment for Killorn to tap in.

The shot gap was the same in the second period as the first, with Anaheim outshooting San Jose 9-4. Again, there were no penalties called.

John Carlson scored his second of the game on a power play at 10:31 of the third. He took the slap shot from high in the slot. Assists went to Troy Terry and Sennecke.

Shakir Mukhamadullin scored the lone Sharks goal at 12:40 of the period. He caught a pass high in the slot as he trailed the play into the zone. He didn’t hold on to it and snapped it into the net. Tyler Toffoli got the assist.

John Carlsson scored his third of the game at 14:03 with another power play goal. It was another slap shot, this one from high in the faceoff circle. Assists went to Terry and Granlund.

Frank Vatrano scored at 17:32 with a backhander from right in front of the net. The assist went to Mason McTavish.

The Sharks finally matched the Ducks in shot in the third period, with 10 to the Ducks’ 11. The Sharks took four penalties to the Ducks’ one, which resulted in two Ducks power plays, one of those a five-on-three.

The Sharks next play on Saturday back at home against the Vancouver Canucks at 7:00 PM PT.