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.

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Jonathan Toews and Marian Hossa each scored twice in leading the Blackhawks to an 8-1 rout of the Dallas Stars on Saturday night.

Nick Leddy and Patrick Kane each had a goal and two assists as eight Blackhawks scored two or more points and Chicago boosted its road record to 12-1-2 with a dominant win on the second stop of a four-game road trip.

“A great effort all-around by the team,” said Kane, whose 15th goal of the season was a highlight-reel beauty in the third period. “It was a game that we probably needed, since we’ve been in so many close games, to get some guys some confidence scoring some goals. It was good to see a lot of guys step up.”

Corey Crawford made 18 saves for his 13th victory, and Johnny Oduya and Duncan Keith had the Blackhawks’ other goals.

“We had all areas of our game with us, puck possession, playing a sound-game system-wise. Everybody contributed,” Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said.

The Blackhawks are 2-2-0 since their record 21-0-3 streak to start the season.

Defenseman Trevor Daley scored for the Stars, who have been outscored 16-3 in losing four straight (0-3-1). Three games into a stretch in which the Stars play nine of 11 at home, they have lost all three and are 2-5-1 in their last nine in Dallas.

“If this wasn’t an alarm clock, I don’t know what is,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said.

The return of offensive catalyst Jamie Benn, who missed two games with a wrist injury, wasn’t enough to help the Stars, although he assisted on Dallas’ only goal, feeding Daley for a one-timer on a power play at 6:30 of the third period to spoil Crawford’s shutout bid.

Kari Lehtonen took the loss in goal for Dallas, surrendering four goals on 17 shots before he was pulled midway through the second period. Richard Bachman made 13 saves in relief.

“We dumped on our first goalie and we dumped on our second goalie,” Benn said. “We left them to hang out to dry and it’s unacceptable. We need to do something within this room to change that. It’s an unacceptable effort tonight. These guys gave us a wakeup call tonight.”

Toews struck twice within 1:35 to propel Chicago to a 2-0 lead in the first period and the Blackhawks never looked back.

At 9:05, Toews cruised through the top of the crease and his nifty deflection of Leddy’s slap shot from the left point beat Lehtonen.

His second goal came seconds after he won an offensive zone face-off, and set up in front of the net, where Duncan Keith’s point shot ricocheted off Daley right to him for an easy tap-in into the open side of the net at 10:40.

“I think maybe the fact that we were able to distance ourselves early and not let them back into the game maybe took the wind out of their sails,” said Toews, who has 13 goals. “And as the game went along, the puck just seemed to keep bouncing our way. We worked for our success. I think whether you score eight goals or not, we did what we had to do to win and played a full 60 minutes.”

The Blackhawks extended their lead to 3-0 on Leddy’s third goal of the season at 17:54. Lehtonen stopped Viktor Stalberg’s point-blank shot, but Leddy managed to jam home the rebound.

Chicago continued to control the action in the second, nearly going up by four at 7:30 when a turnover by Dallas rookie defender Brenden Dillon gave Jimmy Hayes an uncontested wrist shot from the slot, but he fired it over the crossbar.

Oduya made it 4-0 at 8:01 when his slap shot from the blue line sailed past a screened Lehtonen, pinged off the left post and dropped in for his second goal in as many games.

That goal prompted Gulutzan to pull Lehtonen in favor of Bachman.

The Blackhawks scored on their first shot against Bachman, taking a 5-0 lead at 12:18 while the clubs were skating four aside, on Hossa’s one-timer from in front off a nifty backhand pass from Kane.

“We were talking about it before the shift,” Hossa said of the play, “and I knew as soon as he went on the right side, he’d throw it in the middle and I tried to just try to find a way to best position myself to score the goal.”

Skating with a 5-on-3 advantage, Chicago struck again with 50.8 seconds left in the period when Hossa launched a blistering snap shot from the right circle that beat Bachman over his glove.

Keith’s second goal of the year, off a wrist shot that glanced off Benn’s stick in front, beat Bachman at 2:06 of the final period.

Two minutes after Daley snapped the shutout in the third period, another Dallas goal was wiped out. Eric Nystrom’s wrist shot found its way over Crawford’s shoulder, but the officials ruled that Vernon Fiddler interfered with Crawford on the play.

“We certainly got humbled,” Stars captain Brenden Morrow said. “We knew they were a good team coming in. We’d like to think we were prepared for it and expected it, but obviously we weren’t. This was deflating for us. We’ve got some work to do.”

Kane made it 8-1 on the ensuing power play with a spin move in the right circle for a backhander that beat Bachman past the glove at 9:59.

Game notes

Daley’s goal snapped an 0-for-10 power play drought for the Stars over the past three games. … After a 2-for-6 showing with the man-advantage, Chicago is 5 for 21 over its last nine contests on the power play. … The Stars honored their general manager, former C Joe Nieuwendyk, as part of their all-time team. Nieuwendyk played in Dallas from 1995-2002, winning the Conn Smythe Trophy in 1999 while helping the Stars earn the franchise’s only Stanley Cup.

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The 40-year-old forward scored 1:46 into the extra period, lifting the Dallas Stars to a 3-2 victory over the injury-riddled Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday night for their first winning streak of the season.

Jagr beat goalie Devan Dubnyk with a high wrist shot for his third goal of the year.

“That feeling never gets old,” Jagr said. “When you score in overtime, everybody is talking about it. That was a big goal for us.”

Jamie Benn and Derek Roy scored in regulation for the Stars (5-5-1), who have won two in a row.

Dallas coach Glen Gulutzan was relieved his team came away with the win but thought the Stars shouldn’t have allowed the Oilers back into the game in the third period.

“I liked the win in overtime, but I didn’t like the response after our two goals,” he said. “We kept on turning the puck over and over and putting the game in jeopardy. Until we realize that we are a team that has to grind out games — and even if it gets dicey out there, we have to play a certain way — we’re not going to get traction. We have to learn to do a better job.”

Ales Hemsky and Justin Schultz scored for the Oilers, who were without three of their top four centers: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (day to day with a shoulder injury), Shawn Horcoff (broken knuckle) and Eric Belanger (broken toes).

Adding to their woes, center Anton Lander left the game in the first period with a foot injury.

Oilers coach Ralph Krueger lauded his team for working through adversity and said he hoped help would be on the way soon.

“We’re in the pack and in the games with an opportunity to win, we just need to get a healthy lineup together,” he said. “We’re hoping to have Nugent-Hopkins back for our next game on Saturday and Belanger back by Sunday. We want to get back deep into our lineup again and to the four lines we were rolling earlier in the season.

“We’ve had a strange string of events. But the positive on it is that Horcoff is the only long-term injury.”

The Oilers (4-3-3) are winless in their past four games — although they have earned points in three of them.

“Down the middle we’re hurting, for sure, but we found a way to battle through that adversity and earn another point,” forward Jordan Eberle said.

There were few good chances in the first period, and most of them belonged to the Stars while they were short-handed. Dallas had several odd-man rushes late in the first and almost converted on one of them when Cody Eakin had Dubnyk beat but hit the post.

Edmonton broke the scoreless tie 3 minutes into the second following a mad scramble in front of the Dallas net. Nail Yakupov hit the post behind Stars starter Kari Lehtonen before Hemsky banked the rebound in off a defender.

Sam Gagner had an assist to extend his point streak to 10 games.

The sound of metal clanging rang out through Rexall Place with 7 minutes left as Loui Eriksson hit the post behind Dubnyk, leading immediately to a rush by Yakupov, who also hit the post on his shot.

A minute later the Stars tied the game as a shot by Benn appeared to deflect off Jeff Petry and into the Edmonton net. It was Benn’s third goal in six games since ending his contract holdout.

Dallas went up 2-1 with 1:16 left in the second period when Roy ripped a shot from the point during a power play that found the back of the net untouched. It was Roy’s first goal with the Stars.

Edmonton tied it 2-all 8 minutes into the third on a power play as Schultz let loose a slap shot from the point past Lehtonen. It was the third goal of the season for the Oilers rookie defenseman.

Jagr thinks it has taken some time for the Stars to find their footing, but they’re starting to come along.

“We had three new guys coming here, and Jamie wasn’t signed,” he said. “We didn’t really have much of a chance to play together and not even much practice. We have to learn during the games. It is going to get better and better. It is just taking some time.”

The Stars return home to play the Ducks on Friday. The Oilers start a two-game trip Saturday in Detroit.

Game notes

It was the first of three meetings between the teams this season. The Stars won all four meetings last season by a combined 14-4 margin, holding the Oilers to one goal in each game. … Dallas D Alex Goligoski was a surprise healthy scratch. Goligoski is the Stars’ highest-paid defenseman at $4.2 million and is second on the team’s payroll behind Benn. … With the three injured centers, Oklahoma City call-up Marc Arcobello made his NHL debut, playing on the Oilers’ top line between Taylor Hall and Eberle. … The latest injuries added to an already long list of hobbled players for Edmonton that includes Andy Sutton (knee), Ryan Jones (eye), Ben Eager (concussion), Mark Fistric (back) and Theo Peckham (hip). … Stars forward Ray Whitney is out with a broken foot. … The Stars went into the game having been short-handed a league-high 50 times this year.

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These teams will get well acquainted with four meetings over the next five weeks, beginning with Sunday’s matchup in Dallas.

Who: Vacouver Canucks vs. Dallas Stars
When: 3:00 PM ET, February 26, 2012
Where: American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas
Oddsmakers currently have the Stars listed as 225-moneyline favorites versus the Canucks, while the game’s total is sitting at 5.

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Vancouver (40-16-6) has won six straight over Dallas (32-26-4) heading into the season series opener. The Sedin brothers have combined for 23 points in that span, and Henrik has amassed 19 during a 10-game streak against the Stars while Daniel has 14 in an eight-game run.

The clubs also play three times in March, and more matchups could come in the first round of the playoffs considering they’re at opposite ends of the West playoff picture. Vancouver is in a tight chase with Detroit for the top spot and Dallas is part of a close race for eighth place.

The Canucks are 12-1-3 in their last 16, including 3-1-0 to start this six-game trip. The Stars, meanwhile, are seeking their first four-game win streak since Oct. 29-Nov. 8.

Kari Lehtonen is 1-5-0 with a 4.16 goals-against average in six career starts against Vancouver but has played well lately. He’s allowed one goal over his last two starts and won both, making 28 saves in Friday’s 4-1 home victory over Minnesota.

“We’ve been talking about that for a month now, wanting to get some wins put together and now we’re finally doing it,” said Lehtonen, 3-1-1 with a 1.59 GAA in his past five games. “It’s just an interesting time of the year, with every game so important and we’re having fun, so hopefully, we can keep it going.”

The Stars will play again without All-Star winger Jamie Benn, who has missed the last five games with a leg injury. Loui Eriksson has five points in that span to pass Benn for the team lead with 53.

“It’s always good to have everyone going and I thought every line has been playing really well the last couple of games here, so we just have to keep going,” Eriksson said after scoring his 20th goal Friday.

Vancouver no doubt welcomed Saturday as an off day after grueling wins the previous two nights. After ending Detroit’s NHL-record 23-game home win streak with a 4-3 shootout victory Thursday, the Canucks were outshot 31-16 in Friday’s 2-1 road victory over a New Jersey team which had won nine of 11.

“This was five games in seven nights, and it was not easy to say the least,” coach Alain Vigneault said. “We have nothing left in the tank, and we left it all on the ice.”

Vancouver continues to own one of the league’s best power plays at 21.6 percent, although the unit is 4 for 37 over the last 15 games. The Canucks are 9 for 22 in the six-game streak over the Stars.

Vigneault used Roberto Luongo in goal Thursday and Cory Schneider on Friday.

Luongo has won his last eight starts versus the Stars and is 13-4-2 with a 2.00 GAA lifetime against them. Schneider is 2-1-0 with a 1.35 GAA in three starts versus Dallas.

Luongo is 8-1-3 in his last 12 overall with eight of those games going to shootouts — he’s won five. Schneider has won a career-high seven consecutive starts, including six on the road.

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