Goalie Aaron Dell made 33 saves for the Sharks at the Honda Center. San Jose has won five of its past six outings to maintain its hold on second place in the Pacific Division.

Although the Ducks carried the play in the opening frame, the Sharks went to the first intermission with the edge on the scoreboard thanks to Dell's play between the pipes and Vlasic's tally. The defenseman opened the scoring when he carried the puck into the offensive zone, and after a give-and-go with Tomas Hertl, ripped a shot from the slot past Ducks goalie John Gibson at 13:53.

After Kevin Lebanc scored at 3:38 of the second period and Boedker scored at 13:56 on a power play, the 100th of his career, to make it a 3-0 edge, it appeared the visitors could put it into cruise control. However, a tally by Rickard Rakell with 27 seconds left in the second period and a marker by Ryan Getzlaf at 1:47 of the third period brought the Ducks within one.

However, Thornton replied on a power play exactly one minute after Getzlaf's goal to give San Jose the momentum for good. At 9:49 of the third period, Boedker netted his second of the night for a 5-2 lead, and Karlsson rounded out the scoring at 15:06.

With his two-point game, Thornton is up to 1,426 career points, which moves him ahead of Bryan Trottier for 16th place on the league's all-time list.

Getzlaf and Rakell both collected two points. Rakell, who leads the Ducks with 35 points, has nine goals and five assists in his past 12 games.

Gibson surrendered five goals on 22 shots before he was pulled in favor of Ryan Miller, who stopped three of the four shots he faced for the Ducks. Anaheim had a modest two-game winning streak snapped.

--Field Level Media