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Clowe, Sharks rally past Ducks in shootout

Apr 5, 2007 - 6:54 AM ANAHEIM, California (Ticker) -- Ryane Clowe showed his San Jose Shark teammates how it's done in a shootout.

Clowe tallied on the second attempt in the bonus format as the Sharks rallied to post a 3-2 victory over the Anaheim Ducks, preventing them from clinching the Pacific Division title.

Steve Bernier and defenseman Scott Hannan scored and Marcel Goc added two assists for San Jose (50-26-4), which moved to within three points of Anaheim (47-20-13) for the division title with two games remaining.

"We're playing almost for all the marbles tonight," Sharks coach Ron Wilson said. "You don't know how the other team's going to respond.

"They're certainly not going to take their foot off the gas. I wish we could've found a way to win it toward the end of the game and not allow them to have a point at all."

The Ducks can still clinch with a win at Dallas on Friday.

"I'm a little bit disappointed, but we worked hard," Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said. "I'm not going to let the lost point get us down. We missed an opportunity for an extra point but we played hard, we did a lot of things that we need to do."

After each team scored in the first round of shootout, the Ducks' Teemu Selanne missed on his attempt against Sharks goaltender Evgeni Nabokov. Clowe then skated in and backhanded the puck to the top of goal past the glove of Ilya Bryzgalov, putting San Jose up one in the bonus format.

Clowe's tally stood when Andy McDonald skated in on Anaheim's final attempt but lost the puck off his stick, giving the Sharks the victory.

San Jose trailed, 2-0, in the second period when Hannan received a pass from Goc at the top of the right faceoff circle and blasted a shot through traffic to cut San Jose's deficit to one at the 7:57 mark.

"I just gave it to Hannan, and he did a great job getting it on net," Goc said.

"I thought we played an excellent second period," Nabokov said. "Marcel Goc's line was unbelievable, they played really well and the rest of the team picked it up."

Bernier tied it more than three minutes later when he received a pass from defenseman Kyle McLaren at the doorstep and lifted a shot over Bryzgalov.

"McLaren made a great play with his stick and the puck ends up right in front of the net," Bernier said. "I just found the hole."

"I think we know now that we've got a bit of a bite," Clowe said. "We played physical. When we skate and use our size physically, we see how good we really are. We showed that tonight."

Nabokov stopped 37 shots, including 29 in the final two periods for San Jose, which has won four straight. Nabokov won his 24th game in 2006-07 and is 10-0-2 in his last 13 starts.

"I thought this was like a playoff game, especially in the third period," Nabokov said. "It was awesome. It's good for hockey, and the fans loved it. We have to prepare for these types of games, and it looks like we're ready."

Captain Scott Niedermayer scored a power-play goal and McDonald also tallied for the Ducks, who still have won five of eight games vs. the Ducks this season.

Bryzgalov made 29 saves for Anaheim, which had a three-game winning streak snapped.