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Ducks stun Sharks with late surge

Jan 14, 2008 - 6:11 AM By Craig Shultz PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

ANAHEIM, California (Ticker) - Doug Weight and defenseman Francois Beauchemin waited until the last minute to pull out a win for the Anaheim Ducks.

Weight scored in the closing seconds of the third period and Beauchemin tallied in the opening seconds of overtime to lead the Ducks to a 4-3 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Sunday.

With San Jose goaltender Evgeni Nabokov sitting out his first game of the season, Anaheim finally got to rookie Thomas Greiss to win its season-high sixth consecutive home game and snap a 10-game road winning streak by San Jose.

Nabokov had started all 44 San Jose games this season - and 50 in a row dating back to last season. The 21-year-old Greiss had 25 saves in his first NHL appearance.

"We lost in overtime and it was a tough one to lose 30 seconds before the end," said Greiss, who said he learned he'd be making the start following Saturday's game. "I try to compete hard every time and see what's coming. Sure I was a little nervous, but after awhile, especially by the second period, that got better. The first (goal) wasn't a good one, but the rest, especially the last one, was a bad bounce. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don't."

"We've been on the other end of those a few times. It's nice to see it go your way," Anaheim captain Chris Pronger said. "It probably wasn't our best game, but we'll take them any way we can get them."

Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle was pleased with his team's effort, as they improved to 5-0-1 against their division rival.

"In any streak, you're going to have some luck to go with it. Tonight we didn't play to the level that we have been playing, but we still found a way to get it done," Carlyle said. "That's a credit to our players. They didn't stray from the game plan, they still tried. Things were not going our way, but once we got the second goal, it gave us a little bit more life going into the third period. We realize we're fortunate, but it's not because of lack of work ethic."

Weight's tally tied the game at 3-3 with 28 seconds to play and Beauchemin wasted little time ending things when he scored just 33 seconds into overtime.

Beauchemin received a cross-ice pass from Todd Marchant and one-timed a shot that got between Greiss' pads and trickled into the net.

"Scotty (Niedermayer) had the puck in the neutral zone and me and Marchant just kind of swung away from the puck," Beauchemin said. "(Niedermayer) gave it to Marchant and he came down the wing and I came down the other side. He made a great pass across there and I shot it. I was just trying to get it to the net, a one-time shot. It found it's way through.

"We didn't start the way we wanted. Some nights we play good and we don't win, tonight was one of those nights where we didn't play our best but we got two points."

Todd Bertuzzi had a goal and an assist and All-Star Ryan Getzlaf had an assist to record a point in his career-high 10th consecutive game, which is tied for the longest current streak in the NHL.

Jeremy Roenick, Torrey Mitchell and Milan Michalek had goals for San Jose.

Weight, who scored on a shot that ricocheted off the skate of San Jose defenseman Alexei Seminov, said the Sharks frustrated the Ducks all game by clogging the passing lanes.

"I saw (Perry) over there and a couple of guys going through to the net, so I was trying to fire it through and get some action in there," Weight said. "It was a fortunate bounce. I'm definitely going to keep it. It was a big point to get. It was a big win for us. To win the game the way it went down is stealing points, it's a good way to do it."

"I thought we played very well," San Jose coach Ron Wilson said. "A costly turnover with 30 seconds to go in the game. I don't know why we played the puck where we did, and then got a bad break, it deflected off us. I was really pleased with our effort, we're missing a couple of important people tonight, but a lot of guys played well, and unfortunately found a way to lose a point. We just made a mistake. We turned the puck over when we shouldn't have, we weren't under any pressure."

San Jose took an early lead as Roenick tallied on the power play, tipping in a shot by Patrick Marleau at 2:11 of the first period.

"We played a really strong hockey game," Roenick said. "Sometimes it comes down to mistakes and breaks, and it was a real bad break against us. I think we dominated a lot of this hockey game tonight, and we deserved better, there's no question about it. It's a game of mistakes and breaks and we had a little bit of both at the end of the game.

Bertuzzi leveled the game at 8:58 of the first period.

With San Jose defenseman Craig Rivet draped all over him, Bertuzzi skated from behind the net and banked a shot into the net off Greiss' left leg.

After Mitchell scored a shorthanded goal with 4:37 remaining in the first period, Michalek increased San Jose 's advantage to two goals in the second period.

Thornton had the puck behind the Ducks' net and after drawing Jean-Sebastien Giguere to his right, he fed Michalek, who put the puck into an empty side.

Corey Perry halved the deficit at 16:55 of the second period, picking up a loose puck in the crease to score his 24th goal.

"There are games I think we should have won, we've played well enough to win," Sharks right wing Mike Grier said. "But when it comes down to it, they make the plays they need to make and we're not as strong, we have a little lapse in our own end and it cost us. I thought the guys battled hard tonight. I think we deserved a better result. That is why they are the champs, they hung in there and battled to the end."