2 days and 2 games after the 90 minute closed door meeting between the entire San Jose Sharks franchise, the Sharks have started to look like the offensive team that brought them up to first place in the league in the first half of the season. The Sharks scored 4 unanswered goals after giving up the first goal of the game against the Dallas Stars, and San Jose would not give up another 3 goal lead as they held on to win at home 5-2.
Loui Eriksson got the scoring started for the Stars, as San Jose spent the first 10 minutes of the first period in their own zone. Eriksson skated behind the net and scored on a wraparound shot that Evgeni Nabokov could not stop in time, and Dallas was off with a 1-0 lead. But the goal seemed to have awakened the offensive game of the Sharks that had been missing for the past month and a half. On the first power play attempt of the night, Joe Thorton shot the puck from the faceoff circle past Marty Turco's shoulder to tie the game 1-1. 29 seconds later, after the San Jose PA announcer finished calling the scoring play of Thorton's goal, Brad Lukowich found himself with the puck right in front of Turco. The shot rebounded off Turco's pads to the side of the net, where Devin Setoguchi was stationed to push the puck into the corner of the net for a 2-1 San Jose lead.
The second period was dominated by the Sharks. After an icing call brought the Stars back into their zone, Joe Pavelski won the faceoff, but the puck bounced off a Stars skater and back in front of Pavelski, who quickly wristed the shot past Turco, similarly to Thorton's goal, to give San Jose the 3-1 lead. Then, just like in the first period, the Sharks struck on the very next shift. 19 seconds after Pavelski scored, Milan Michalek tried to center a pass to Setoguchi who was in front of the net. But the puck bounced off a Dallas skate and into the net for a 4-1 lead. Dallas did have a scoring opportunity, when Nabokov dived for a loose puck to try and freeze it but could not. Instead, the puck was taken by Dallas, who fed Eriksson at the side to try and score a goal while the goaltender was down. But Nabokov made the save sitting up on the ice, and the rebound was cleared away.
Dallas had a chance to come back into the game thanks to an early 3rd period goal. A little over 5 minutes in, Stephan Robidas blasted a puck from the blue line. Nabokov saw the puck too late, as it slided under his pads before he could close them in time. With a little over a minute to go, San Jose took a penalty and Dallas pulled Turco for a 6 on 4 situation. But as the Stars tried to get set up on the blue line, the puck took a bad bounce and Patrick Marleau intercepted the D to D pass, and scored in the empty net with a minute remaining to secure the win 5-2.
San Jose improved on their league-best home record to bring it up to 29-3-4. In his second game on the second line after spending the entire season with Joe Thorton, Setoguchi ended his 12 game scoreless drought while Pavelski ended his 7 game scoreless drought. The second line was the most dominant line of the game, as they put up 6 points on 3 goals and all three forwards took the 3 stars awards at the end. The game was only the second time in 15 games where San Jose scored more than 3 goals, but the Sharks have now won 4 of their last 5. Despite the win, the Sharks still find themselves 1 point behind Detroit for the lead in the Western Conference and the President's trophy. The loss put Dallas in a 3 way tie for 10th place in the West, and 3 points behind Nashville for 8th place. The Stars, who had been dealing with injuries to their top scorers all season in their fight for a playoff spot, welcomed the return of Brad Richards, only to have him injure his hand in the game, which will put him out indefinitely. Rob Blake and Marcel Goc were injured for the Sharks, as Blake left midway through the second period and Goc limped off the ice in the third. Both injuries were described, interestingly, as "owees" rather than serious injuries by coach Todd McLellon. San Jose's next game will be a back to back home game Sunday night against the Colorado Avalanche.
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