In San Jose Sunday, Joe Pavelski paced the Sharks with a two-goal effort in a 5-1 win over the Dallas Stars.
“We had a good effort tonight,” Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. “First period, I thought
Aaron Dell ade 29 saves to get the win over Dallas Sunday – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
we started a little slow, which is probably natural in a back-to-back. I thought in the second and third period we started to play our game. That’s not an easy game to play. They’re a desperate team. They’ve got a lot of skill and speed, and Dell let us get our legs under us. I thought he was excellent early and from there we took over.”
Patrick Marleau, Joel Ward and Chris Tierney also had strikes for the Sharks.
The Sharks improved to 41-20-7 with the win and hold a seven-point cushion on the Anaheim Ducks who also won Sunday night.
“A lot of guys played pretty big roles tonight,” Pavelski said. “I don’t think it was one or two or three guys. Tonight was an effort on a back to back. It’s a four-line game. That’s how we win. That’s how we believe we will win here.”
Remi Elie scored the Stars’ lone as Dallas dropped to 27-31-10 on the season.
WATCH: All Stars vs. Sharks highlights
Dallas’ goalie issues remain a major problem as Kari Lehtonen got the start but yielded three goals on just eight shots on net.
“We made a couple of big mistakes,” Dallas head Ruff said. “We had a [defenseman] fall down on the one goal. We turned the puck over in the neutral zone. That got us in trouble. You know, you dominate a period but you don’t put the puck in the back of the net, and then you make a couple of mistakes that end up in the back of your net.”
Antti Niemi relieved Lehtonon and made 16 saves.
“It’s tough to describe. It’s been hard, and we just have to keep on working and doing our best and not be too focused on all the negative stuff that’s happened, Niemi said after the loss.
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