Recap: Ducks Find Themselves on the Brink After 8-1 Loss in Game 3

SAN JOSE -- It was an opportunity to climb back into the series. Instead, the Ducks find themselves on the brink of elimination.
A four-goal outburst from the Sharks in the second period blew the roof off a packed SAP Center, as the Ducks fell, 8-1, in a pivotal Game 3 on Monday night. The Ducks, now in a 0-3 series hole, will have no choice but to win out the remainder of this series, which continues on Wednesday.

The Ducks had chances - plenty of them - but only one got past Sharks goaltender Martin Jones, who improved to 3-0 in the series. Rickard Rakell's one-timer at the 13:40 mark of the first period tied the game and gave the Ducks some life, but that was the closest they would get. John Gibson gave up five goals on 24 shots through the first two periods before Ryan Miller finished off the third.
Every time the Ducks made a mistake, the Sharks seemed to capitalize. They buried two odd-man rushes in the second period and scored their fifth goal on their only power play chance up to that point. Thirteen different Sharks finished with points in this game.
"We started making repeated mistakes and it hurt us," Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf said to reporters. "We weren't backing each other up properly. We gave up too many odd-man rushes and they started scoring goals."
Rakell's tally was the just the third goal of the series for the Ducks, who were shutout in the series opener.
The Sharks opened the scoring for the second time in three games, this time coming off a bang-bang play in front of Gibson at the 3:44 mark of the first period. After gaining speed down the wing, Mikkel Boedker sent a backhanded pass into the slot where Logan Couture chipped it home for his second goal of the series.
Minutes after killing off a penalty, the Ducks found themselves with the man advantage, and they made it count. It came off a one-timer from Rakell, who found space at the left dot. He finished off a nice pass from Brandon Montour, who found Rakell alone in his wheelhouse. It marked Rakell's 11th career postseason goal and his first of this series. Getzlaf earned the secondary assist on the goal, giving the Ducks captain 10 points (2g/8a) in nine career postseason games against the Sharks.

San Jose regained the lead after pouncing on a Ducks turnover along the bench. As Montour carried the puck up the ice, he lost his balance, allowing the Sharks to transition the other way on a 2-on-1. Joonas Donskoi buried the odd-man rush for his first goal of the series just 1:15 into the second period.
The Sharks made it 3-1 just minutes later on another odd-man rush, this time coming from Marcus Sorensen. The goal game at the 3:41 mark of the middle frame.
Veteran center Eric Fehr made it 4-1 with 6:17 remaining in the second period when he carried the puck into the zone and finished off an impressive individual sequence.
San Jose made it 5-1 on another power-play goal, this time from Tomas Hertl at the 16:49 mark of the second period.
"Couple two-on-ones and the game is 3-1," defenseman Francois Beauchemin said to reporters after the game. "We were right in the game and they ended up scoring a fourth one and fifth one. We just couldn't stop the bleeding in the second. We talked about it after the first period that their second period so far this series has been their biggest one. We just couldn't stop the bleeding in the second."
Joe Pavelski gave the Sharks their sixth goal of the game, again on the power play, midway through the third period. The Ducks were at the tail end of a four-minute penalty kill after Getzlaf committed slashing and roughing infractions in the same sequence. (Getzlaf would later receive a 10-minute misconduct at the 11:12 mark of the third period).
Evander Kane scored late in the third period to make it 7-1, his third goal of the series.
Chris Tierney made it 8-1 with 23.2 seconds left on the clock with a power-play goal, San Jose's sixth PPG in the series.
"You dwell on it tonight," defenseman Josh Manson said to reporters. "We know what happened. It's embarrassing. It's not good enough. Now it's do or die. If you dwell on a game like this, it gets you nowhere."
Game 4 will take place on Wednesday night at SAP Center, with puck drop shortly after 7:30 p.m.