Final
Dallas Stars 0 – San Jose Sharks 6
With their backs against the wall and season riding on the line in a do or die game, the Dallas Stars came out and absolutely wet the bed against the San Jose Sharks in a 6-0 loss. Dallas was outplayed in every single facet of the game and it showed on the score sheet. San Jose forwards carved up the defense and could get any shot that they wanted. Kari Lehtonen, who has started 27 of the last 28 games, looked just plain tired out there and he gave up rebound after rebound as he faced 33 of the Sharks 52 shots.
San Jose took the game to Dallas and forced their hand. Once the Sharks scored that power-play goal in the second period, you could see the will just draining from the Stars, especially after they failed to score on three straight power-play opportunities. The losing streak and constant pressure looks like they have broken this team and Marc Crawford just can’t find a way to motivate them.
With this loss, Stars is put us all out of our misery and are all but eliminated from the playoff race. While they are still mathematically alive, they show no signs of playing winning hockey as they have dropped eight of their last ten games. Brad Richards and Loui Eriksson haven’t even looked anything close to what they were before they suffered their concussions and continue to look listless out there as the game wore on.
Dallas currently sit three points back of Chicago with each team having six games left to play. Their next game is Saturday in Los Angeles to face the Kings.
1st Period:
An aggressive start from the Stars, but as usual they look a bit unsettled on defense. Kari has had to be solid in the first again and Patrick Marleau had great shot to score the first goal for the Sharks. They’ve had a couple of guys sitting in front of Lehtonen and no Stars defenseman covering them. Luckily, no pass made it onto their sticks.
Tom Wandell had a great chance after he stick-handled into the Sharks zone all the way from the red line. He got around three Sharks defenders and had Niemi fooled, but his shot just missed wide left of the net.
Fistric made a couple of great blocks while in one-on-one situations with Patrick Marleau and then Jason Demars.
Backchecking from many of the Stars forwards is good tonight. Langenbrunner, Eriksson and Ott all made solid tie-ups to help out the Stars defense as the Sharks had pseudo-odd man rushes.
I know that it’s Kari’s style, but he really seems to be wondering further and further away from his net on long shots. It’s gotten him into a little bit of trouble twice as the puck was loose and he wasn’t in his net.
Ben Eager had a point-blank shot on Kari with 5 minutes left in the period that Kari stoned him on. Stars players were trying to get hits in around the boards and left Eager all alone in front of the net.
Kari let up a bad rebound that Dan Boyle knocked into the net 16:12 into the period. Joe Pavelski was in a one-on-one with Woywitka and do-si-doed him, getting a backhand shot on Kari that he couldn’t hold onto. Boyle picked up the rebound before Trevor Daly could get the puck and scored.
Devin Setoguchi had another one-on-one opportunity as he stole the puck from a falling FIstric and got in all alone against Kari. He got in two shots that Kari stopped to preserve the one goal deficit.
Jeff Woywitka took a penalty with 4 seconds left in the period so 1:56 will carry over into the second when San Jose will have a clean sheet of ice and fresh energy.
| Dallas | San Jose | |
| Score | 0 | 1 |
| Shots | 10 | 14 |
| Penalty Minutes | 2 | 0 |
| Power Plays | None | 0 for 1 |
| Blocked Shots | 10 | 6 |
| Hits | 12 | 13 |
| Faceoff Wins | 5 | 10 |
2nd Period:
Dallas came out strong here after the penalty kill and put pressure on Niemi, but Trevor Daly took a tripping penalty. Jamie Benn has a chance for a shorthanded goal but is stopped by Niemi at the net.
Logan Couture scores on the power-play at the 4:30 mark, putting Dallas in a 2-0 hole. Couture jumped on a rebound after Dan Boyle and Dany Heatley had their shots stopped.
Stars had two power-plays in the period to try to answer the Sharks goal but just couldn’t hit the net with their shots. They had trouble connecting on their passes as well. They were not very dangerous power-plays as they only had one shot on goal.
With six minutes left in the period, Dallas got another power-play chance as Setoguchi tripped Goligoski. Dallas only got one shot on goal and had enormous trouble even getting the puck into the offensive zone to try and set up the power play. They didn’t get it set up until there were only 25 seconds left in the man-advantage.
Sharks score at the 18:25 mark as Marc-Edouard Vlasic puts in his third goal of the year to put the Sharks up 3-0. He shot from the left wing, a little above the face-off circle. His shot took a slight deflection and then, with no real power to it, somehow squirts under Kari’s legs and rolls into the net. You could just sense the give-up from the Stars after that goal.
| Dallas | San Jose | |
| Score | 0 | 3 |
| Shots | 11 | 17 |
| Penalty Minutes | 4 | 4 |
| Power Plays | 0 of 3 | 1 of 1 |
| Blocked Shots | 5 | 5 |
| Hits | 6 | 5 |
| Faceoff Wins | 9 | 12 |
3rd Period:
Tom Wandell starts the period as the center iceman for the Stars. He’s been pretty much the only guy out there that has been playing hard out there.
Patrick Marleau scores the fourth goal 2:30 in the period for the Sharks and Kari Lehtonen mercifully gets pulled in favor of Andrew Raycroft. Like Lehtonen, he’s the target of a shooting gallery out there as he’s pelted by the Sharks.
Meanwhile, Antti Niemi continues to be a brick wall in net, allowing virtually no rebounds and stopping all shots.
Patrick Marleau scores again at the 12:26 mark before Ben Eager puts in goal number six at the 14:18 mark.
| Dallas | San Jose | |
| Score | 0 | 6 |
| Shots | 8 | 21 |
| Penalty Minutes | 2 | 0 |
| Power Plays | None | 0 for 1 |
| Blocked Shots | 4 | 6 |
| Hits | 3 | 5 |
| Faceoff Wins | 8 | 9 |
Game Stats and Scoring Summary
| Dallas | San Jose | |
| Score | 0 | 6 |
| Shots | 29 | 52 |
| Penalty Minutes | 6 | 6 |
| Power Plays | 0 of 3 | 1 of 3 |
| Blocked Shots | 19 | 17 |
| Hits | 21 | 23 |
| Faceoff Wins | 22 | 31 |
1st Period:
- 16:12 Dan Boyle (7) Dallas 0 – San Jose 1
Assists: Joe Pavelski, Kyle Wellwood
2nd Period:
- 4: 30 Logan Couture (31) (Power Play) Dallas 0 – San Jose 2
Assists: Ryane Clowe, Dany Heatley
- 18:25 Marc-Edouard Vlasic (3) Dallas 0 – San Jose 3
Assists: Joe Thornton, Devin Setoguchi
3rd Period:
- 2:30 Patrick Marleau (34) Dallas 0 – San Jose 4
Assists: Jamal Mayers, Ian White
- 12:26 Patrick Marleau (35) Dallas 0 – San Jose 5
Assists: Joe Thornton, Dany Heatley
- 14:18 Ben Eager (6) Dallas 0 – San Jose 6
Assists: Jamal Mayers, Marc-Edouard Vlasic
