Jamie Benn scored the lone goal in the shootout and Kari Lehtonen stopped all three attempts as the Stars snapped the San Jose Sharks’ seven-game winning streak with a 5-4, come-from-behind victory on Sunday.

“They can keep thinking that. The only thing that matters is what we believe in this dressing room,” Benn said. “It’s not going to be pretty some nights. But the effort is going to be there and the heart and character will be there also. I think you saw part of that.”

Alex Chiasson started the second rally back from a two-goal deficit when he scored his second goal of his third career game early in the third period. Loui Eriksson tied it for the Stars, who have beaten division-leading Anaheim and the streaking Sharks the past two games.

Eric Nystrom also scored, and Lehtonen made 32 saves through overtime for Dallas, which moved within four points of Detroit for the final playoff spot.

“The situation we’re in, every game is important,” forward Ray Whitney said. “If we have any chance at all (to reach playoffs) it’s going to be a pretty impressive run at the end. If you look at these guys, they hit a hot streak at the right time. You can see how it catapulted them up in the standings. For us to have any chance, we’re going to have to go on a similar run.”

Tommy Wingels, Brent Burns, TJ Galiardi and Marc-Edouard Vlasic scored for the Sharks, who had won the first six games of their seven-game homestand. San Jose failed in its attempt to become the first NHL team to win every game on a homestand of at least seven games, according to STATS LLC.

“It’s very disappointing,” Wingels said. “We’re happy with the homestand as a whole but you’re only as good as your latest performance. There are things we need to clean up and move on.”

Benn beat Antti Niemi in the second round of the shootout when he skated out wide and then came back to the middle for a forehand shot. Lehtonen sealed the win when he stopped Burns on the final attempt.

This was the first of three meetings between the teams in a span of 17 days, and the clubs look far different than they did for the first meeting of the season in February in Dallas.

The Stars have traded key players Brenden Morrow, Jaromir Jagr, Derek Roy and Michael Ryder since winning 3-1 then. That loss was the ninth in 10 games for the Sharks, who have turned things around dramatically of late.

San Jose won in Anaheim on March 25 and then took the first six games of this homestand to vault from outside the playoff picture to the middle of the fight for home-ice advantage in the first round.

“I like to look at the positives, it was a good homestand,” captain Joe Thornton said. “Now we have to go win some games on the road. All in all, we needed to win some games at home and we did. It would have been nice to get the two tonight but we didn’t. But good homestand.”

The Stars twice erased two-goal deficits with Nystrom and Chiasson scoring 26 seconds apart in the second period to tie the game at 2. Chiasson and Erickson scored in the opening half of the third period to tie it at 4. The tying goal game when Erickson beat Brad Stuart to the rebound of a shot by Matt Fraser midway through the third.

“I just think we kept believing in here,” Chiasson said. “We were down 2-0, made it back 2-2, then were down 4-2 and made it back 4-4 and ended up winning in a shootout. This is just a passionate group of guys. You can see guys want to win here. I think we’re just going game by game, see where it takes us. We’re getting closer and closer.”

Galiardi, whose improved play has helped spark this recent run, had helped San Jose take the lead with a beautiful spin-o-rama goal in the second off a good play from newly acquired Raffi Torres.

Torres has long been reviled in San Jose for playoff hits that hurt Milan Michalek and Thornton over the years. He was even greeted by a mix of boos and cheers in his first game with the Sharks. But Torres quickly won over his new fans by dishing out some hard hits, drawing a penalty and earning two assists, including one on Galiardi’s goal.

Torres hit Nystrom to jar the puck loose in the offensive end and then stole it from Trevor Daley before feeding Galiardi in the circle. Galiardi then spun and fired a backhand with his back to the net, and the puck sailed just under the crossbar to beat Lehtonen. Galiardi even seemed surprised by the highlight-reel goal, holding his arms out in celebration.

Game notes

Stars F Lane MacDermid, who scored in his first two games since being acquired in the Jagr trade, sat out with an upper body injury. … D Jason Demers returned for the Sharks in place of Matt Tennyson after missing four games with a head injury.

The post Stars rally, win in shootout to snap Sharks’ 7-game win streak appeared first on IdealCapper.

The Blackhawks set an NHL record for the best start to a season, beating the San Jose Sharks 2-1 on Friday to give them at least one point in each of their first 17 games.

Rookie Brandon Saad’s short-handed goal early in the third period — and with 3 seconds left on a San Jose power play — snapped a 1-all tie and stood up as the game winner. Chicago (14-0-3) won its fourth straight game to break a mark set by the 2006-07 Anaheim Ducks, who earned points in their first 16 games.

The Blackhawks equaled that run Tuesday with a shootout win over Vancouver.

“It’s nice to get another win and make history,” the 20-year-old Saad said. “Our group’s had a great year so far, so we never expect anything less.

“We’re celebrating the win now. I’m sure it will sink in a little bit more tomorrow, but it’s awesome to be part of history.”

Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville also reflected on the record, but not for long.

“The guys should be proud of the achievement, the accomplishment,” he said. “I just think we shouldn’t be happy with where we’re at. We just want to keep trying to get better.”

Saad scored the go-ahead goal after closing in on the left wing one-on-one with San Jose defenseman Brent Burns. After a quick fake, Saad fired a shot from the circle that beat San Jose’s Antti Niemi just under the glove 2:24 into the period.

“I just took him (Burns) wide and tried to get a shot off,” Saad said. “Luckily, I beat (Niemi) glove side. Sometimes power-play guys drop back a little, and I took advantage of it.”

Burns gave Saad too much room on the play, however, according to San Jose coach Todd McLellan.

“I thought that we let a player that wasn’t very dangerous — not because he’s not talented or anything — but a player in a situation that wasn’t very dangerous skate into a primary scoring spot without even challenging him,” McLellan said.

“I’m not sure if our goalie was on the angle or not,” he added, “but I’m disappointed we didn’t challenge him earlier.”

Viktor Stalberg also scored for league-leading Chicago, which has earned a total of 31 of 34 possible points.

Blackhawks goalie Ray Emery made 26 saves to win his fourth straight start and improve to 7-0. Chicago killed all four San Jose power plays, all of which occurred in a span of less than 14 minutes late in the second and early in the third periods.

“(The record) is a notch in your belt,” Emery said. “It’s special to do something as a group.

“The start of the year is the worst time to do it, I think,” he added. “You’d rather do it at the end, but it’s great.”

Patrick Marleau scored for the Sharks, getting only his second goal in 11 games after getting nine in San Jose’s first five games.

Both Emery and Niemi were sharp throughout most of the game. But a misplay by Niemi led to Stalberg’s goal at 16:40 of the second period, and he seemed fooled on Saad’s score. Niemi stopped 32 shots.

Niemi, who was the goalie when the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup in 2010, also let in a couple of soft goals in a 4-1 loss to the Blackhawks at the United Center last Friday.

Chicago and San Jose faced each other for the third time in 17 days. The Blackhawks defeated the Sharks 4-1 last Friday and 5-3 in San Jose on Feb. 5.

The Blackhawks had a full lineup for the first time since their season opener at Los Angeles.

Chicago defenseman Brent Seabrook, forward Daniel Carcillo and goalie Corey Crawford returned from injuries. Seabrook missed Tuesday’s game with a lower-body injury, and Carcillo sat out 15 games after suffering a knee injury in the season opener.

Crawford, who sat out three games with a upper-body injury, backed up Emery.

Chicago forward Marian Hossa was back after being hit in the back of the head by Vancouver forward Jannik Hansen on Tuesday and leaving early in the third period. Hansen was suspended for one game by the NHL.

Marleau broke the scoreless tie late in the first period. He connected with 14.2 seconds left to give San Jose a 1-0 lead.

Emery made a point-blank pad save on Joe Pavelski’s tip of Joe Thornton’s shot from left wing, then Marleau pounced on the rebound in the slot. Emery got his left pad on Marleau’s attempt, but the puck barely slid over the goal line.

Stalberg tied it at 1 at 16:40 of the second on a play from the left corner. From a sharp angle and with traffic in front, Stalberg whipped the puck toward Niemi. It struck the inside of Niemi’s left pad near the knee and deflected in.

Saad’s goal 2:24 into the third made it 2-1.

Then Chicago’s penalty killing and alert work by Emery helped preserve the lead.

“I thought we got better as the game went on, each and every shift,” Quenneville said. “We certainly got some energy off the penalty kill tonight, none more than getting the shortie in the third.”

Niemi was pulled for an extra attacker with 1:10 left, but Chicago kept the Sharks off the puck and off balance. Hossa missed an empty net in the final seconds.

Game notes

The 2006-07 Anaheim Ducks got off to a 12-0-4 start that season and went on to win the Stanley Cup. … The Sharks played the fifth game of a season-high six-game road trip and are 1-3-1. Chicago C Dave Bolland left the game late in the second period with an upper-body injury and is out day to day. … Despite the compressed 48-game NHL schedule, San Jose had played only one game — at St. Louis on Tuesday — since facing the Blackhawks in Chicago a week ago. … San Jose C Scott Gomez and D Justin Braun were healthy scratches. … Former Blackhawks player and current broadcaster Eddie Olczyk, a Chicago-area native, was honored in a pregame ceremony for being inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame.

The post Advertisement Blackhawks set NHL record for best start to season appeared first on IdealCapper.