San Jose Sharks 3, Dallas Stars 1

by Mark Stepneski of of Andrew's Stars Page

DALLAS — The Dallas Stars rolled out another solid effort Monday night at the American Airlines Center but it didn't add up to a win over Evgeni Nabokov and the San Jose Sharks, who held off the Stars for a 3-1 win.

"In the end it's about finishing and that was the down fall tonight," said Stars coach Dave Tippett. "We did a lot of great things in that game tonight. We controlled a lot of play and had a lot of opportunities. Nabokov was very good."

Nabokov made 28 saves on the night to earn his 20th win of the season.

"He made some big saves to get us some momentum," San Jose coach Todd McLellan said. "And we had penalty kills in the third period where he had to make some tremendous saves. He was magnificent."

Nabokov was one roadblock for the Stars. Their power play, which has been good lately, was another. It was 0-6 on the night and missed on a 56 second five-on-three chance in the second period when San Jose's lead was 1-0. The Stars also missed on three chances in the third period.

"When we have success, our power play is working and we couldn't capitalize on a 5-on-3 and some other chances down the stretch," said defenseman Stephane Robidas.

The loss snapped the Stars' five-game points streak, four-game home winning streak and dropped them back to .500 on the season (15-15-5).

"It was one of those games that we have to realize we played well. We're not going to win every game, even when you do things well," said Stars goalie Marty Turco, who stopped 16 of 18 shots, including a stop on a penalty shot by Sharks captain Patrick Marleau. "We stayed in it the whole game and that was a great sign for our team. It's just really unfortunate we couldn't collect any points. It's night and day with this team then when the Sharks were here last, no one's going to say any different."

That last game was a 6-2 loss to San Jose on November 28. The Stars are 8-4-1 since then.

"We competed pretty well against a good team, and we are playing much better as a team," said Robidas.

San Jose got a first period goal from Jonathan Cheechoo and another one from Milan Michalek early in the third period to build a 2-0 lead.

The Stars outshot the Sharks 29-19, but Nabokov was superb. The only puck the Stars could get by him was a Matt Niskanen shot from the point that was going high and wide and was accidentally knocked into the net by Sharks defenseman Alexei Semenov with 5:03 remaining in the third to make it a 2-1 game.

"It found it's way into the net and gave us some life." said Niskanen.

A little more than a minute later the Stars went on a power play, but the first great scoring chance went to Marleau who got a penalty shot after being hooked by Robidas. But Turco stopped Marleau on the penalty shot to keep it a 2-1 game.

The Stars couldn't take advantage of the time left on their power play and an empty net goal by Ryane Clowe with 1:02 left sealed the win for the Sharks, who improved to 28-4-4 on the season but have won just three times in their last six games (3-1-2).

"It will get even harder because we're facing desperate teams that are hungry for points," Nabokov said. "We have to match it every night. It'll be harder and harder from now on."

The Stars, who slipped back to 14th in the conference with Monday's loss, are one of those teams hungry for points. Although they didn't get any on this night, the feeling is they are headed in the right direction with their play.

"We're certainly not satisfied where we are. We have a lot of work to do yet," said Tippett. "I think there is still a lot of upside on this team. We're going to continue to push until we get there. It's a good feeling around here. You hate losing, but the things we've done here the last few weeks - we are starting to go in the right direction. The effort tonight is certainly something to build on."

Notes: Stars forward Fabian Brunnstrom missed Monday's game. "He's day-to-day with a lower body injury," said Stars coach Dave Tippett. "He's probably going to take a couple days off and we are going to re-evaluate him before we go on the trip up north." Tippett said Brunnstrom is doubtful for Wednesday's game against New Jersey. ... San Jose forward Devin Setoguchi missed the game due to personal reasons.