San Jose Sharks 1, Dallas Stars 0

by Mark Stepneski of Andrew's Stars Page

DALLAS — The effort was there Monday night against San Jose Sharks. So were the chances. The only thing missing were some goals, and you can't win without those. The Stars couldn't get anything past Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabokov and the end result was a 1-0 loss at American Airlines Center.

"We got a complete effort from everyone," said Stars coach Dave Tippett. "The next phase of that is execution. I thought we did a lot of good things, but we didn't execute enough to find a goal. ... Nabokov was pretty good. He made some key saves."

Overall, Nabokov made 29 saves and stole two points for his team and denied the Stars crucial points in their battle for a playoff spot.

"Anytime you lose it's extremely disheartening, but we saw some good signs, which we haven't seen in six or seven games," said forward Steve Ott. "If we bring that work ethic every night we're going to get points in the long run."

It was a gutty effort from the Stars, who outplayed the league-leading Sharks for good stretches of the game and did it without even more players out of the lineup.

The Stars, who lost Brad Richards last week and have been without Brenden Morrow and Sergei Zubov most of the season, were without center Mike Modano night. He was out with the flu. They lost forward center Toby Petersen in the second period to a lower body injury. He'll be evaluated on Tuesday.

"As a team, we've battled some injuries as of late and through the whole year," said center Brian Sutherby, who led the Stars with six shots on goal. "It's a time we've got to stand up and work hard, and we did that tonight."

But despite the effort, the Stars couldn't crack Nabokov. He had sharp stops on Loui Eriksson and Sutherby in the first period, stacked the pads to deny Fabian Brunnstrom during a second period power play and made a sharp save on a tipped puck by Mark Parrish in the second.

"You got a score a goal to win. We didn't score a goal," said Tippett.

The Sharks got the only goal of the game 7:55 into the third period when Devin Setoguchi took a pass from Ryane Clowe, got past Stars defenseman Darryl Sydor, busted down the right wing and ripped a shot past Stars goalie Marty Turco from the faceoff circle.

"I saw [Sydor], he kind of stopped at the blue line," said Setoguchi. "I had to make a quick move, and once I did I could get by him. He could see one of my teammates coming, and that made him indecisive on the blue line."

Turco said he would have liked another crack at that shot.

"Anytime you get a shot from outside the dots, you want to get it. Hindsight is always a beautiful thing, and I wish I could have that one back," said Turco. "Regardless, I'm proud of the guys and how they played. We are going to play like that to battle our way into the playoffs."

The Stars pressed until time expired, but no luck. Steve Ott set up Lehtinen in the slot during the final seconds but Blake made sure the puck never got to the net.

The Sharks won their fourth straight game as they opened a four-game road trip, which continues Wednesday in Detroit. The shutout was the fifth of the season for Nabokov.

"Fabulous," San Jose coach Todd McLellan said of his goaltender. "He was the first, second and third star in my opinion. He allowed us to escape with the points. I'm happy for Nabby. On the last road trip, a lot of pucks went by him and it wasn't his fault. This was really good for him as an individual and us as a team."

The Stars, who have lost two straight and four of their last seven games, remained in seventh place in the Western Conference standings. They also dropped to seventh in the West in points percentage, falling slightly behind Minnesota. Despite Monday's loss, they are hoping to build on the effort.

"There were a lot of positives, the work ethic was there and we battled hard to the end," said Stars defenseman Stephane Robidas. "We have to move forward and get ready for a big one Thursday with St. Louis."

"That's how we are going to have to play as a team," said Tippett. "There was some bad luck around the net tonight or some of the breaks we worked for didn't come tonight, but our group has to recognize that we've got to come back and do the same thing on Thursday and hope for a better result."

Notes: The Stars will practice Tuesday at the Dr. Pepper StarCenter in Farmers Branch from Noon to 1 pm. The practice is open to the public. The Farmers Branch facility is located between the I-35 Access road and Denton Drive, just south of Valley View Lane. 12700 N. Stemmons Freeway.