Recap: Ducks Earn Season Sweep of Rival Sharks with 4-3 Shootout Win

Trevor Zegras, Mason McTavish and Sam Colangelo tallied multi-point nights before McTavish buried the shootout winner, all guiding the Ducks to a 4-3 victory over the rival San Jose Sharks tonight at Honda Center.

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With the win, Anaheim improved to 33-33-8 on the season, and 19-17-2 on home ice, with eight games still to play. The Ducks are now on pace for a 23-point improvement in the standings this season, projected to be the second-biggest rise in the NHL.

Anaheim's third line of Zegras, McTavish and Colangelo powered the home side's attack, combining for seven first-period points as the Ducks raced out to an early 3-1 advantage. Jackson LaCombe also scored, helping the Ducks complete a three-game season series sweep of the Sharks - Anaheim's fourth straight year with a winning mark against its Northern California rival. McTavish tallied three assists for his seventh career three-point night.

Between the pipes, Lukas Dostal turned aside 28-of-31 San Jose shots for his 22nd win of the season.

Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Alexander Wennberg and Shakir Mukhamadullin scored for the Sharks, who fell to a league-worst 20-45-9 on the season and 4-13-2 against divisional foes. Veteran netminder Alexander Georgiev made 34 saves.

Both sides got on the board in the first five minutes and change, with San Jose answering an early Ducks lead amidst a sea of scoring chances on each end of the ice.

Zegras first opened the scoring on a well-executed faceoff play deep in the San Jose zone. McTavish won the draw, pulling it back to Colangelo in the shooter's spot for a quick bid on net, which Zegras deftly tipped under Georgiev's glove from in tight.

With a goal and an assist tonight, Zegras has now earned seven points in his last six games and 11 points in his last 12 outings.

Mukhamadullin answered for San Jose a couple shifts later, powering a one-timer through Dostal from the point, a slapshot that just barely snuck through the goaltender's legs and over the goal line.

The goal was Mukhamadullin's second in the NHL. The 23-year-old rookie, acquired last year in the deal that sent Timo Meier to New Jersey, has appeared in 30 games with the Sharks this season, collecting 2-7=9 points.

Anaheim would take control from there though, forging a 3-1 lead after one with the McTavish, Zegras, Colangelo trio in the center of the action.

The go-ahead goal came on the power play, a point shot by LaCombe, setup by Zegras, that soared past Georgiev and the screening Colangelo just outside the crease.

LaCombe has now scored 14 goals this season, tied for eighth among all NHL defensemen. Since the turn of the New Year, the 24-year-old has been one of the game's most dominant blueliners, placing among the league's top-10 in goals, assists, points, even-strength points and power-play goals.

The only Ducks defensemen over the last two decades with more goals in a single season than LaCombe's 14 this year are Lubomir Visnovsky and Scott Niedermayer.

Colangelo then made it 3-1 in the final minute of the opening frame, winning the race to a rebound in the San Jose crease and punching it home before any Sharks defenders could locate the loose puck.

Colangelo now owns eight goals in 24 NHL appearances this season, third among all league rookies in goals per game (.33, min. 15 GP). Since his late February recall from the San Diego Gulls, where he scored 19 goals in 38 AHL games, Colangelo has registered 7-2=9 points with a +4 rating.

McTavish assisted on all three of Anaheim's first-period goals, giving him six points in his last four games and 10 points in his last eight appearances. The former third overall pick, now in his third full NHL season, has set career-high totals in points, goals, assists and plus/minus this year.

The big first period also marked McTavish's team-best 12th multi-point performance of the season.

Mukhamadullin left the game on the first shift of the third period, after getting dropped to the ice by Anaheim's Frank Vatrano during a post-whistle scrum sparked by the defenseman's open-ice hit on Troy Terry.

San Jose then pulled back within one a controversial goal that left Ducks fans, coaches and players alike voicing their frustration. With the Sharks on the attack, forward X knocked over Dostal at the top of the Ducks crease, sending the goaltender down to the ice while the puck bounced wide. As Dostal attempted to get back into his net, the puck came to Vlasic in the slot, where he wired one home to the blocker side to make it a 3-2 game. The Ducks did not challenge the goal.

Wennberg pulled the Sharks even with three minutes to go in regulation, depositing a cross-ice feed from William Eklund deep in the corner of the zone.

Terry nearly won it for Anaheim on the first shift of overtime, beating Georgiev clean from the slot, but the shot rang the post and bounced wide of the net.

Instead the night's finale would require a shootout, which saw a lone goal off the stick of McTavish to seal Anaheim's 4-3 win.

The Ducks begin a two-game road trip Thursday in Calgary.