Rickard Rakell scored two goals in regulation and added the game-winner in a shootout as the Anaheim Ducks returned home to earn a 4-3 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday.
Derek Grant also scored a goal as the Ducks won at home for the first time since Jan. 21 after playing eight of the previous nine games on the road. Anthony Stolarz made 40 saves in a rare start in place of John Gibson.
Trevor Zegras scored in the shootout for Anaheim before Rakell’s close-range shot into the roof of the goal in the third round ended the game.
Logan Couture scored two goals and Brent Burns added a goal and two assists for the Sharks, who lost their seventh consecutive game (0-3-4). Timo Meier had two assists and James Reimer stopped 26 shots for San Jose.
Couture and Tomas Hertl had their shootout attempts stopped by Stolarz.
Grant gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead 3:38 into the game when finished a two-man break with Sam Carrick just ahead of the Sharks’ defense to score his eighth of the season.
The Sharks owned the remainder of the opening period. Couture tallied his first of the game at 7:10, with Burns making it 2-1 when he scored his fifth of the season 10 minutes later.
Rakell took charge for the Ducks in the second period. He continued his recent hot run with the game-tying goal at 7:00. Couture scored his second of the game and 17th of the season on the power play for a 3-2 San Jose lead at 13:44.
At 16:09 of the middle period, Rakell tied it one more time at 3-all. After Adam Henrique won a faceoff in the Sharks’ zone, Rakell slid to the right circle and fired his 14th of the season past Reimer.
Rakell, who recorded his second two-goal game of the season, has six goals and seven points over his past seven games.
It was the first game of the season between the California rivals with three more set to take place by April 26.
–Field Level Media
