DUCKS' LATEST LOSS LEAVES BAD TASTE SAN JOSE 4, MIGHTY DUCKS 3.

Byline: Brice Nixon Staff Writer

ANAHEIM - It will register as the team's sixth defeat, but there definitely was a different feel to the Mighty Ducks' 4-3 loss Sunday to the San Jose Sharks.

Maybe that's because the result could have easily been different.

Petr Sykora's potential game-tying goal was waved off and the Ducks came away frustrated and with no points after a hard-to-swallow loss in front of 15,157 at the Pond. The Ducks won only once in five games against the Sharks last season.

``They're a good team, and I thought we did a lot of good things, and that's the frustrating part,'' Ducks coach Mike Babcock said.

The loss was made even more frustrating when Steve Rucchin scored what would have been a tying goal with less than five minutes remaining in the game.

The Ducks trailed 3-2 midway through the third period when Sykora deflected Ruslan Salei's shot past San Jose goalie Evgeni Nabokov. It was ruled the deflection came off a high stick before it went in, nullifying the goal.

Ducks captain Paul Kariya said he was told the goal was originally waived off and replays were inconclusive, so the call stood.

``I think that we really deserved that goal as a team,'' Sykora said. ``At that point when I hit that puck I thought for sure it was a goal.''

The Ducks had indeed worked hard to keep up with the Sharks, who briefly took a 2-1 lead seven minutes into the second period. But it did not turn into a bigger deficit, as has happened in several games this season. Sykora scored a power-play goal just 15 seconds after Owen Nolan gave the Sharks the lead. Kariya got his 600th career point in 536 games with an assist on the play.

The Ducks dictated much of the play early. Stanislav Chistov gave them a 1-0 lead just 19 seconds into the game. He took a pass at the blue line, sped past San Jose defenseman Bryan Marchment, around Nabokov and swept the puck into the net as he fell to the ice. It was the rookie's third goal and eighth point of the season, and his first goal in six games.

It was also the third-fastest Ducks' goal, and the fastest scored at home. Kariya has the fastest goal in team history, at nine seconds.

But they could not keep former Ducks player Teemu Selanne from tying the score.

Selanne has been one of the few bright spots for the Sharks, last season's Pacific Division champions who were last in the division and second-to-last in the Western Conference. He scored his seventh goal of the season when he took a pass from Patrick Marleau and put the puck between the legs of Ducks goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

Giguere was solid for the Ducks but didn't do anything to help lower his 2.83 goals-against average entering the game.