San Jose suffers 3-0 home loss to Dallas Stars
SAN JOSE – The San Jose Sharks drew a blank for the first time in 35 games, falling 3-0 to the Dallas Stars in a Pacific Division showdown in front of 15,100 fans Tuesday at HP Pavilion.
Bill Guerin scored twice, including his 300th NHL goal, and Marty Turco notched his third shut-out of the campaign as the Stars moved within five points of the division-pacing Sharks.
San Jose, with 51 points after 44 games, will face Vancouver Thursday night. The Canucks have 59 points atop the Northwest Division.
Dallas scored one goal in each period, sending Shark goalie Evgeni Nabokov to his 11th loss.
“They beat us in just about every area you can think of,” said Sharks coach Ron Wilson.
“We never seemed to get anything going. (Dallas) played desperate with a sense of urgency we couldn’t match. They won more battles than we did.”
Scott Young bagged his sixth goal of the season at the 17:26 mark of the first period.
Sharks defenseman Brad Stuart collared a rebound of the Stars shot in the low slot, but the attempted clearing pass up the middle of the ice landed on Young’s stick. The subsequent 30-foot wrister clanked inside the left post for a 1-0 lead.
“We made three or four mistakes on the first goal,” said Wilson. “We basically handed them an easy goal.”
Guerin, named to the starting line-up for the Western Conference in next month’s All-Star Game in Minnesota, ripped a shot past Nabokov for a 2-0 cushion 7:31 into the second period. The puck skimmed off San Jose defenseman Christian Ehrhoff’s stick at the Dallas blueline to allow a 3-on-2 Stars rush.
Guerin muscled inside Sharks defenseman Scott Hannan and turned a rebound of a Brenden Morrow shot into a 10-footer past Nabokov 10:23 into the third period.
“We didn’t get a forecheck going,” said Shark forward Alyn McCauley.
“We didn’t make it very hard on (Dallas). They dominated, but we kind of let it happen. We had a chance to move nine points up on those guys. We let it slip. I’m more concerned about how we lost, rather than that we lost. The first two goals were plays that easily should not have been in our net. We need to learn our lesson and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
The loss marked the first game in the past 15 home games without at least one point for San Jose.
The Sharks play in Denver Saturday against the Avalanche, then begin a four-game week Monday at home against the Detroit Red Wings.
