In Anaheim, the San Jose Sharks handed the crease duties to Eetu Makiniemi, who made 23 saves in his first NHL start on Friday night, in a 6-1 win over the Ducks.
San Jose improved to 9-16-5.
“I really liked the way we defended, we defended hard tonight,” San Jose coach David Quinn said. “So, you know that’s the recipe for success, and you get six goals. It feels pretty good.”
Timo Meier scored in the first period to give the Sharks a 1-0 lead.
In the middle frame, San Jose added three more to the scoreboard for a 4-0 advantage before the Ducks got on the board.
Scott Harrington started the second period scoring rush to make it 2-0.
Erik Karlsson added a power play goal for a 3-0 advantage.
“The power-play goal was an absolute fluke,” Eakins said. “It breaks our stick in half up in the upper slot and finds its way in the net.”
Nico Sturm pushed the lead to 4-0.
“It’s a little bit easier to play when you have the lead early, so that definitely helped,” Karlsson said. “Hopefully we can string a few [wins] together and not just have one here and there.”
Troy Zegras was the lone striker for the Ducks.
“We were trying to do a lot of things individually,” Anaheim coach Dallas Eakins said. “You can’t win by yourself in this League.”
Anaheim dropped to 7-18-3.
“The only way we are going to get out of it is together,” Ducks forward Sam Carrick said. “You can’t really feel sorry for yourself, this League is too relentless.”
Nick Bonino hit for an empty-net goal to make it 5-1, and Steven Lorentz added a marker for a 6-1 final.
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John Gibson got the start and yielded four goals, and made 15 saves before exiting the game with an illness in the second intermission.
Anthony Stolarz made seven saves in relief.
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