The San Jose Sharks are in a deep funk and it has cost them sole possession of first place in the Pacific Division.
Kari Lehtonen got the win in San Jose Friday night – file photo courtesy of Brent Clark
The Dallas Stars hung a 6-1 loss on the Sharks Friday night that permitted the Anaheim Ducks to claim a first place tie.
It was San Jose’s fifth straight loss.
“It’s not ideal by any means. I think it’s maybe a bit of a wakeup call for us that this time of year it doesn’t matter if you’re fighting for a job for next year or fighting for a [Stanley Cup Playoff] position or whatever it might be,” San Jose’s Brenden Dillon said. “Obviously those guys (Dallas) are in a different spot than us, but you can’t take a night off and you have to be emotionally invested. You’ve got to take every shift as hard as you possibly can.”
Adam Cracknell struck for a hat trick for the Stars.
“To get a hat trick with this group of guys, it’s something I’ll remember,” Cracknell said. “Hopefully YouTube is still around in many years and my daughter can watch and [I can] show her I was actually a good hockey player.”
The Sharks were victimized by bad bounces and terrible deflections.
“You have a handful of those a year where nothing goes right and nobody’s got any kind of legs or energy,” Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer said. “It was one of those nights. I don’t have any explanation for it. I felt we prepared the right way the last couple days. I thought we felt pretty good about ourselves. Then the puck dropped and everything went bad.”
Brett Ritchie, Jamie Benn and John Klingberg also scored for Dallas.
Joe Thornton had the lone goal for the Sharks.
Kari Lehtonen got the win for Dallas on 20 saves.
WATCH: All Sharks vs. Stars highlights
Aaron Dell took the loss on 23 saves.
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