Stars deny Sharks of historic mark

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The Sharks were on the verge of becoming the first team in league history to win all seven games of a homestand, and then the Dallas Stars decided to do something about it.

The visitors rallied from a pair of two-goal deficits and got a shootout goal from Jamie Benn and three saves from goalie Kari Lehtonen to post a comeback 5-4 win over the disappointed Sharks on Sunday.

"People are counting us out on two fronts but we are going to battle, you could see that tonight," Dallas coach Glen Gulutzan said. "The resiliency of the group -- it's just one day at a time."

After Dallas' second shooter Benn beat San Jose goalie Antti Niemi with a forehand move, Lehtonen completed his shootout shutout win by denying Logan Couture, Dan Boyle and Brent Burns to snap San Jose's seven-game win streak.

"I didn't like our game the whole night," Sharks coach Todd McLellan said. "It was nice we scored four goals, but we had a lot of key high-end, high-minute people who didn't perform very well tonight."

Dallas rallied in the third period to tie the game by mid-period. Alex Chiasson scored his third of the season and second of the afternoon at 6:07 by capping an odd-man break with a tip-in of a Ray Whitney goal-mouth pass.

"He's had some pretty good games on this road trip," Benn said of Chiasson. "He's big and powerful forward. He uses his body down low. He's looking pretty good right now."

Dallas' Loui Eriksson pounced on a short rebound to the left of Antti Niemi at 9:14 after the Sharks goalie had stopped Matt Fraser's shot from the left wing.

"A lot of mistakes, we were not very quick," McLellan said. "It was just a function of not focusing and not getting the job done."

The hosts scored three of the five goals scored in a wild, mistake-filled second period to take a two-goal advantage into the final 20 minutes.

After the Sharks survived a number of turnovers and near-misses by the Stars, Brent Burns doubled a 1-0 lead after one period with a shot on the fly from the right boards at 3:06 that beat Lehtonen, who failed to cover the near post.

But less than a minute later, the visitors struck for consecutive goals within 26 seconds to tie it. Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic turned the puck over to Dallas' Vernon Fiddler, who fed Eric Nystrom in front for a goal at 3:41. Then Alex Chiasson found an opening just to the right of the slot to bang home a tying goal at 4:07.

The Sharks struck for the tiebreaker when Raffi Torres jarred Nystrom into an offensive-zone turnover and fed T.J. Galiardi, who scored his third goal of the season with a perfect no-look backhand shot at 7:48.

Torres wasn't done contributing; following consecutive failed San Jose power plays, he provided the primary assist on Vlasic's third goal of the year after a lengthy review.

"I thought they were out best line," McLellan said of Torres, Joe Pavelski and Galiardi. "They spend a lot of time forechecking in the other team's zone. Raffi was on the score sheet positively and people knew when he was on the ice. A real good start for him."

Vlasic banked a shot off of Lehtonen's dropped goal stick and the netminder's pants just inside the near post on a wrap-around at 15:31 to give San Jose a two-goal lead.

The Sharks scored the only goal of the first period while enjoying a 10-6 edge in shots.

After killing a penalty taken within the first minute of action, San Jose struck at even strength just past the midway point of the period. Logan Couture won a battle on the board with Dallas defenseman Aaron Rome and centered to Tommy Wingels, who scored his fourth goal of the season from close range at 8:39 on San Jose's fifth shot of the game.

"Once we relaxed a little bit we started to play," Gulutzan said. "I thought the way we came out in the second we began to dictated the play. Then it went back and forth because they are such a good team."

NOTES: Sunday's game marked the first of six in 10 days for San Jose, which heads out for a four-game road trip starting Tuesday in Columbus. The Sharks will play every other night on the road thereafter in Detroit, Dallas and Phoenix before closing out the regular season with four of six at home. ... Sunday's game capped a three-game West Coast swing for the Stars, who next host Los Angeles on Tuesday. ... San Jose scratches included forwards James Sheppard, Tim Kennedy and defenseman Matt Tennyson. Forward Lane MacDermid did not dress for Dallas. He's nursing an upper-body injury sustained Friday in Anaheim.