SAN JOSE – Dallas overcame two-goal deficits twice Sunday afternoon on the way to a 5-4 shootout victory over the San Jose Sharks at sold-out HP Pavilion.
The one point lifted San Jose to 47 in the bunched Pacific Division race. The Sharks begin a four-game road trip Tuesday in Columbus.
A record-setting home stand would have been the reward if the Sharks had been able to hold back the Stars. No NHL team had ever had a spotless home stand of at least seven games.
Dallas goaltender Keri Lehtonen turned back all three San Jose skaters in the shootout. The Stars earned the two points when Jamie Benn scored on the visitors’ second shootout attempt.
Playing in his first game after a trade from Phoenix to San Jose last week, Raffi Torres assisted on two goals in the second period as the hosts snapped a 2-2 tie.
Five goals were tallied in the second period. The Sharks managed the lone goal of the first period when Tommy Wingels drilled a one-timer from the slot off a feed from Logan Couture at the 8:39 mark.
San Jose needed 3:06 of the second period to take a 2-0 lead.
Brent Burns recorded his sixth goal of the season when he entered the Stars’ zone along the right boards and blistered a shot to the glove side of Lehtonen. Justin Braun and Antti Niemi were given assists.
The Stars recovered to pull even at 2-2 in the next 61 seconds.
Eric Nystrom finished a 2-on-1 rush off a San Jose turnover in the Sharks zone, tapping the puck past Niemi for his sixth goal of the year at 3:41.
Dallas added the equalizer 26 seconds later when rookie Alex Chiasson scored his second career goal at 4:07 off a cross-ice feed from Jamie Benn.
San Jose regained the two-goal lead courtesy of goals from T.J. Galiardi and Marc-Edouard Vlasic.
A hard check by Torres in the Dallas zone created a Stars turnover. Torres found Galiardi in the right circle. Galiardi spun and backhanded a shot inside the right post past Lehtonen at 7:48.
Vlasic made it 4-2 with a wrap-around goal at 15:31 that needed several minutes of off-ice review to make the goal official. The initial call had been a save and a face-off in the Stars zone. A booth review led to the goal being counted.
Dallas quieted the crowd in the third period with two goals in a span of 3:07.
Chiasson, in his third NHL game, recorded his second goal of the day when he redirected a pass from Ray Whitney between Niemi’s pads at the 6:07 mark.
Loui Eriksson was in position to bat in a long Niemi rebound offering at 9:14 to complete the game’s scoring in regulation.
