Carlson gets 1st NHL hat trick, Ducks defeat Sharks to end 6-game skid

ANAHEIM -- John Carlson scored his first NHL hat trick for the Anaheim Ducks in a 6-1 win against the San Jose Sharks at Honda Center on Thursday.

Carlson, in his 17th NHL season, was acquired from the Washington Capitals on March 5 for a conditional first-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft and a third-round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft. The defenseman has 12 points (four goals, eight assists) in 13 games with Anaheim.

"His shot was booming tonight," Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said. "He had a great sense of where to shoot it, and the timing of scoring big goals tonight was outstanding."

Pavel Mintyukov, Beckett Sennecke, Troy Terry and Mikael Granlund had two assists each, and Lukas Dostal made 18 saves for the Ducks (42-32-5), who had lost six in a row (0-5-1).

The Ducks remain in third place in the Pacific Division, tied in points with the second-place Vegas Golden Knights and moving to within one point of the first-place Edmonton Oilers.

"That's a blueprint for our team," Carlson said. "Not every game is going to present like that, but that's something to build on. A building block for us to rely on going forward." 

Shakir Mukhamadullin scored and Yaroslav Askarov made 24 saves for the Sharks (37-34-7), who were coming off a 5-2 loss against the visiting Oilers on Wednesday.

The Sharks are four points behind the Los Angeles Kings for the second wild card from the Western Conference into the Stanley Cup Playoffs with the Nashville Predators and Winnipeg Jets between them in the standings.

"It's not good enough this time of the year," Sharks forward Kiefer Sherwood said. "We can't be outwilled or outworked, it's unacceptable. It doesn't matter if it's a back-to-back."

Leo Carlsson sped through the neutral zone and split two San Jose defenders before lifting the puck over the glove of Askarov from in close for a 1-0 lead at 2:59 of the first period.

Anaheim made it 2-0 at 6:20 when Granlund backhanded a drop pass for Carlson and he scored off the crossbar with a one-timer from just above the right circle.

The Sharks did not get their first shot on goal until 13:12 and were outshot 10-5 in the first period.

San Jose defenseman Sam Dickinson partially whiffed on a shot from the top of the left circle, leading to a 2-on-1 break the other way. Sennecke held the puck until reaching the top of the crease and then slid it to Alex Killorn for the redirection to extend the lead to 3-0 at 5:15 of the second period. 

"Me going in there and screaming and yelling at him doesn't do any good," Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said of Dickinson's mistake. "He understands. He's a smart hockey player. He's a smart kid." 

San Jose started slowly again in the second period and didn't generate its first shot on goal until 11:48 before getting outshot 9-4 in the period.

Anaheim went on the first power play of the game at 9:40 of the third period and Carlson scored with a snap shot from above the circles to make it 4-0 at 10:31.

"You saw it last night (against the Kings). The other team wanted it more, and same thing tonight," Sherwood said. "We have to learn from it, and we’ve got to look inwards here a little bit. We're changing the standard. It's not OK to lose, it's not OK to lose battles, lose PKs, and just shifts on end."

Mukhamadullin prevented the Ducks from earning their first shutout since a 2-0 win against the Sharks on Oct. 12, 2024, when he scored off a drop pass from Tyler Toffoli to cut it to 4-1 at 12:40.

Carlson scored his third goal on another one-timer from the top of the left circle during a 5-on-3 power play to make it 5-1 at 14:03.

Frank Vatrano tapped in a loose puck from in close to make it 6-1 at 17:32.

"We just played a total game," Carlson said. "In the defensive zone, I think we were good and that led to our offense. Put the puck away like we know that we can. And we've kind of lost a little bit of mojo, and that's what we're looking for this time of year is some momentum, and I think that was a great game for that."

NOTES: The Sharks did not have a power play. ... San Jose forward Pavol Regenda returned to the lineup after he was a healthy scratch the previous eight games and he was minus-2 with four hits in 11:12. .... Sherwood had 12 hits for San Jose. ... In his 198th NHL game, Carlsson became the third Anaheim player to score 60 goals in the NHL before his 200th game, joining Paul Kariya (118 games) and Bobby Ryan (139 games). ... Carlsson has nine points (four goals, five assists) in his past 10 games. ... Carlson is the third NHL defenseman aged 36 or older to record a hat trick, joining Mathieu Schneider and Nicklas Lidstrom of the Detroit Red Wings. He also played the second-most games for a defenseman (1,156) before recording his first hat trick. Lidstrom played 1,442 games before his first.