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Thornton's late goal lifts Sharks over Ducks

Dec 17, 2006 - 7:46 AM SAN JOSE, California (Ticker) -- The San Jose Sharks relied on stars Joe Thornton and Jonathan Cheechoo when they needed them.

Cheechoo scored the tying goal with just over seven minutes remaining in the third period and Thornton netted the winner five minutes later as the Sharks recorded a 4-3 comeback victory over the Anaheim Ducks.

The Sharks improved to 12-4-0 at home and 8-2-0 in games after suffering a loss.

"I thought both teams battled for 60 minutes," San Jose defenseman Kyle McLaren said. "They are a good team, one of the best, if not the best team in the league. I just think the bounces maybe went our way a little bit, but I thought it was one of our better all-around games, especially after the showing we had down there against Anaheim.

"We needed to come back and prove something to ourselves, that we can compete with this team."

"We've had lots of bounces go our way and that's the way it goes," Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle said. "They got the power-play goal and we had our chances. That's the way it goes and we move on. Sometimes you get calls that go for you, sometimes they go against you, and tonight was one of those nights.

"I'm proud of our work ethic, we competed extremely hard. They're a good hockey club, we knew that, and it was an entertaining game back and forth."

After falling behind, 3-2, on Dustin Penner's goal at 12:15 of the third, the Sharks forged a tie 31 seconds later, when Cheechoo banged the rebound of defenseman Matt Carle's shot from the point past goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

Thornton snapped the deadlock with 2:13 left. With San Jose on the power play, the reigning Hart Trophy winner's shot from the right faceoff circle deflected off defenseman Scott Niedermayer's shin pad and past Giguere.

"There is not much you can do, but you can always make the save," Giguere said. "It went off Scotty's skate or shin pad. I thought it was going wide, but it's unfortunate and that's the way it went."

"It went off my shin pad, the shot, so I don't think he (Cheechoo) touched it," Niedermayer said. "It was off mine and in, but it was a smart play. Any time you get (the puck) it to the net, things happen, and they got the shot to the net."

Penner had given the Ducks a 3-2 lead when he took a feed from Corey Perry down low on a 2-on-1 situation and stuffed the puck past Evgeni Nabokov.

The loss concluded a 4-1-0 road trip for the Ducks, who fell in regulation for just the fourth time in 35 games.

Thornton also set up a goal, captain Patrick Marleau had a tally and an assist and rookie Joe Pavelski added a pair of assists for the Sharks, who have won nine of 12.

Ryan Getzlaf and Perry each had a goal and an assist for Anaheim, which had its five-game winning streak snapped. The Ducks, 12-2-1 on the road this season, also lost their bid for a franchise record eighth consecutive road win.

Anaheim, which entered with the league's top-ranked power play, went 2-for-8 with the extra skater while the Sharks went 2-for-6.

"You always focus on the present, and even though we had four good games on this road trip, tonight was the most important game because that's the one we played," Giguere said. "Saying that, if you take everything into perspective, we had a hell of a road trip. Now we've got three games before Christmas, and we'll focus on the next one."

For the Sharks, the victory meant more than just an average win.

"We might be 10 points behind, but we are still climbing the ladder," San Jose's Mark Bell said. "It wasn't just the two points, I think we wanted to send them a message tonight."