In a rush of early offense Sunday night in San Jose, the Sharks’ Mikkel Boedker struck for two goals and Joe Pavelski and Melker Karlsson added single markers in the first period to help the Sharks to a 4-0 lead.
For good measure, Justin Braun added a fifth goal to the sheet in the middle frame to send the Dallas Stars to a 5-2 loss.
“Yeah, I think that’s pretty fair to say,” Boedker said. “I think it’s going well. Maybe the mindset of being a little more aggressive, a little more direct. I think it’s paying off.”
The Sharks improved to 32-19-8 and are three points clear for second place in the Pacific Division.
“It was a huge game, because of how the last game went but more importantly because of where we are in the standings and what’s ahead here on our schedule,” Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. “It’s a critical two points.”
Martin Jones made 26 saves to pick up the win.
Gemel Smith and Tyler Pitlick had the Stars’ goals, both coming in the third period after the decision was already affirmed..
“They scored every chance they got,” Dallas’ Dan Hamhuis said. “Our determination level was not high enough. You could see when it was there, we took over the game. The same things are showing up and we have to find ways to get over the hump. We’ve got to get our game back.”
[WATCH: All Stars vs. Sharks highlights]
Ben Bishop got the start for Dallas and made one save on the first five Sharks attempts.
“We kind of blinked and it was 3-0,” the Stars’ Tyler Seguin said. “I gave Pavelski a pretty nice pass. Obviously, that’s not something I want to do and it’s not the way to start a road trip. We took possession of the third period and played more of our game.”
Kari Lehtonen came into the game late in the first period and made 22 saves.
“When you don’t check, when you don’t want to check against a good team that’s ready to play, you get burned. When we get back to checking, we’ll be a good team. I’ve had a difficult time getting them to dig in. I have to find a different way,” Stars head coach Ken Hitchcock said.
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