SAN JOSE – The San Jose Sharks scored a season-high three power-play goals Thursday but it still wasn’t enough to end their dismal homestand on a positive note.
Anthony Duclair pulled the Sharks to within one goal at the 9:30 mark of the third period, but San Jose could not find another equalizing goal in a 6-4 loss to the Anaheim Ducks before an announced crowd of 10,537 at SAP Center.
Sharks forwards Mike Hoffman and William Eklund also scored with the man advantage, as their goals 5:14 apart in the second period tief the game 3-3. But the Ducks responded with power play goals from Frank Vatrano and Adam Henrique in a 66-second span to take the lead for good and hand San Jose its sixth loss in seven games.
After Duclair’s third-period goal, Anaheim’s Isac Lundestrom scored an empty net goal with 24 seconds left in regulation time.
Henrique’s goal at the 18:41 mark of the second period came off a redirection as he tipped a shot from Ducks defenseman Jackson Lacombe past Kaapo Kahkonen, who allowed five goals on 17 shots in the first two periods.
Duclair had his first three-point game as a Shark, Mikael Granlund had three assists and Fabian Zetterlund added two assists for San Jose, which lost for the seventh time in eight games and went 0-5-0 on its first post-All-Star Game homestand.
Kahkonen has now assumed No. 1 goalie duties for the Sharks after Mackenzie Blackwood was placed on injured reserve on Wednesday with a lower-body injury he suffered in Tuesday’s game against the New Jersey Devils.
Kahkonen and Magnus Chrona, who was recalled from the Barracuda of the AHL after Blackwood was placed on IR, will each start one game this weekend as the Sharks face the Central Division-leading Dallas Stars on Saturday and the Minnesota Wild on Sunday.
Hoffman’s goal, his ninth of the season, snapped a 28-game goal drought.