Sharks rally, down Ducks, 5-4

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In Anaheim, The Ducks had a seemingly comfortable two-goal lead heading into the third period of their game with the San Jose Sharks.

Instead, Anaheim coughed up the lead and fell behind in the first eight minutes of the third and trailed 3-4 to the Sharks.

“We just kind of took a couple bad penalties and we kind of shifted away from our game plan (in the second period),” the Sharks’ Kevin Labanc said. “But in the third period, everybody came out and that was a good comeback victory for us. You’re going to have games like that, and you’ve got to find a way, and we found a way to get two points here.”

Max Comtois second goal of the game saved the Ducks from an ignominious loss by forcing extra time and then the skills competition before the Sharks recovered and won, 5-4.

Logan Couture, Evander Kane and Brent Burns were the strikers in the third period outburst by the Sharks.

“We got challenged between the second and third (periods) by the coaches,” Couture said. “We challenged ourselves.”

Martin Jones made 33 saves in the win.

“In that second period, we’ve got to look at the way that we worked them down low, the way that we found a way to get those pucks to the net and get those scrappy goals,” Comtois said. “Right now, we’re not scoring a lot of goals, and I think that’s one way to get back on track and get those goals coming for us.”

Troy Terry and Adam Henrique had single markers for the Ducks.

“Our practice habits with our offense are much better,” Ducks coach Dallas Eakins said. “I think the players are really grasping at what works and what doesn’t. I thought we got that going fairly well in the second period and for a few shifts in the third.”

Matt Nieto also scored for San Jose in regulation.

Ryan Donato and Leblanc had goals in penalties.John Gibson made 26 saves in the loss.

“On the 4-on-3, we finally got the look that we wanted,” Eakins said. “We never got it in the net, but you can’t just have one look on the 4-on-3. You’ve got to be driving it down their throat.

“We can’t be a team that hopes to win. We have to be a team that expects to win. When you have a 3-1 lead, you have to come out and expect to win and do the things that we have to do to nail that down. Some were on board and some were not tonight.”