Sharks rally to defeat Ducks in matchup of two of NHL's best teams

SAN JOSE, California _ Joe Thornton's shot deflected off Scott Niedermayer and into Anaheim's net with 2:13 to play, and the San Jose Sharks rallied for a 4-3 victory at home over the NHL-leading

Sunday, December 17th 2006, 6:23 am

By: News On 6

SAN JOSE, California _ Joe Thornton's shot deflected off Scott Niedermayer and into Anaheim's net with 2:13 to play, and the San Jose Sharks rallied for a 4-3 victory at home over the NHL-leading Ducks on Saturday night.

Jonathan Cheechoo scored the tying goal with 7:14 left for the Sharks, who capped a thrilling meeting between two of the league's top three teams with a third-period rally that snapped Anaheim's seven-game road winning streak in the Ducks' first of four visits to the Shark Tank this season.

Mark Smith and captain Patrick Marleau scored 2:49 apart in the second period to erase a 2-0 deficit for the Sharks, who avenged a 5-0 thrashing in Anaheim in the clubs' first meeting last month. Evgeni Nabokov made 32 saves in his fifth victory in six starts.

Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry scored early goals for the Ducks, and Dustin Penner put the Ducks up 3-2 in the third 31 seconds before Cheechoo tied it.

Canadiens 6, Penguins 3

At Montreal, Saku Koivu scored twice for the second game in a row, and the Canadiens scored four straight goals in the second period en route to the victory over Pittsburgh.

Michael Ryder scored a power-play goal in the first, the first of four Montreal goals with the man advantage. Alex Kovalev, Koivu and Sheldon Souray added power-play goals in the second. Maxim Lapierre added an empty-netter with 21 seconds left in the game.

Sidney Crosby _ who entered with 10 points in his last two games _ had an off night by his recent standards, though he extended his points streak to eight games when he set up Alain Nasreddine's first NHL goal on a delayed penalty in the first.

Penguins rookie Evgeni Malkin scored his 16th goal during 4-on-4 play 12:05 into the first, and Erik Christensen got his fifth goal in the third

Flames 6, Coyotes 3

At Glendale, Arizona, Jarome Iginla scored two goals and assisted on two others to power Calgary past Phoenix.

Alex Tanguay, Daymond Langkow, Byron Ritchie and Tony Amonte added goals for Calgary. Miikka Kiprusoff had 32 saves.

It was the fourth loss in the last five games for Phoenix.

Predators 3, Blues 2

At Nashville, Tennessee, Paul Kariya scored the only goal in a shootout and Nashville beat St. Louis for the 10th straight time.

Kariya, who also scored a power-play goal in regulation, beat Manny Legace with a high shot in the shootout. Scott Nichol also scored for Nashville.

Keith Tkachuk had a goal and an assist, and Doug Weight added a goal for St. Louis.

It was the 10th straight loss for the Blues. New coach Andy Murray is now 0-3.

Canucks 2, Wild 1

At Vancouver, British Columbia, Mattias Ohlund scored the winner on a power play midway through the third period to give Vancouver the victory.

Henrik and identical twin Daniel Sedin each had two assists as the Canucks' 23rd-ranked power play went 2-for-5 against Minnesota's second-ranked penalty killing.

Roberto Luongo made 28 saves for the Canucks, who have won four of five to leapfrog the Wild into a top-eight spot in the Western Conference.

Stars 4, Kings 3

At Los Angeles, Brenden Morrow scored the tying goal on a power play with 4:58 left in the third period, Mike Ribeiro had the only goal in a shootout and Marty Turco made 33 saves to pace Dallas.

The Stars are 3-0 in shootouts this season and 15-1 since the NHL instituted the tiebreaking format at the start of last season.

Philippe Boucher and Stu Barnes scored first-period goals for Dallas. Sergei Zubov had two assists and became the third European-born defenseman with 700 career points, joining Sweden's Borje Salming and Nicklas Lidstrom. Jeff Halpern also had two assists.

Dustin Brown, Sean Avery and Rob Blake score for Los Angeles.

Red Wings 2, Devils 1

At East Rutherford, New Jersey, Brett Lebda scored midway through the third period to give Detroit its first win in New Jersey in more than 13 years.

Pavel Datsyuk also scored for Detroit and Dominik Hasek made 21 saves in the Red Wings' first victory here since Nov. 20, 1993, a span of nine games that included two loses in the 1995 Stanley Cup finals.

Scott Gomez scored for the Devils, who dropped their third straight and fell to 11-3-1 at home.

Senators 3, Sabres 1

At Buffalo, New York, Jason Spezza scored two power-play goals and added an assist for Ottawa.

Dany Heatley added a goal and assist for the Senators, who rebounded from a 6-0 loss at Nashville on Thursday. Ray Emery had 35 saves.

Jochen Hecht scored for Buffalo, which had its winning streak snapped at three.

Maple Leafs 9, Rangers 2

At Toronto, Kyle Wellwood had three goals and two assists for suddenly high-scoring Toronto.

Carlo Colaiacovo, Alexei Ponikarovsky and John Pohl also scored in a five-goal first period for the Maple Leafs, who have scored 18 goals in winning three straight.

Darius Kasparaitis and Martin Straka scored for the Rangers, who suffered their worst loss of the season in ending a five-game winning streak.

Blackhawks 6, Blue Jackets 4

At Columbus, Ohio, Lasse Kukkonen scored a late clinching goal and four Chicago teammates had at least a goal and an assist to lead the Blackhawks.

Martin Havlat had a goal and two assists and Denis Arkhipov, Jeffrey Hamilton and Tuomo Ruutu each had a goal and an assist for the Blackhawks, who almost lost first-period leads of 4-0 and 5-1.

The Blue Jackets were booed off the ice after the opening period but received a standing ovation after coming back with three goals in the second period to cut the lead to 5-4.

Panthers 6, Bruins 3

At Boston, Jozef Stumpel scored his second power-play goal of the game 4:10 into the final period to break a 3-3 tie and snap Florida's four-game losing streak.

Villie Peltonen, Rostislav Olesz and Ollie Jokinen scored for the Panthers, and Gary Roberts added an empty-net goal.

Glenn Murray scored his team-leading 15th and 16th goals for Boston, and Marco Sturm had the other score.

Islanders 6, Thrashers 0

At Uniondale, New York, Rick DiPietro stopped 37 shots for his second shutout of the season, and Shawn Bates, Viktor Kozlov and Mike Sillinger each had a goal and an assist to lead the Islanders.

Miroslav Satan, Alexei Yashin and Andy Hilbert also scored for New York. It was DiPietro's eighth career shutout.

Capitals 4, Flyers 1

At Washington, Alexander Semin had two goals and an assist and Washington spoiled the abbreviated return of Philadelphia captain Peter Forsberg by handing the Flyers their sixth straight loss.

Alex Ovechkin added a goal and two assists for the Capitals.

Forsberg's return from a four-game absence provided the Flyers with a momentary lift. The veteran center assisted on a goal by Mike Knuble that put Philadelphia up 1-0 in the first period.

The lead vanished by the end of the period, and so did Forsberg. He missed the final 40 minutes with a concussion.

Hurricanes 3, Lightning 2

At Tampa, Florida, Eric Staal scored the go-ahead goal, Cam Ward had 30 saves, and Carolina stopped a five-game losing streak.

Staal scored with 7:02 remaining in the game on a rebound after Erik Cole's shot hit the post.

Ray Whitney had two goals for Carolina, including one on a breakaway to make it 3-1 with 1:24 remaining.

Ryan Craig and Martin St. Louis had the Lightning goals. Tampa Bay has lost four in a row and eight of nine.