Tomas Hertl scored 1:12 into overtime as the San Jose Sharks beat the Dallas Stars 4-3 on Saturday night for their fifth straight win.
Hertl scored on a low wrist shot between the legs of Dallas goalie and former Shark Antti Niemi as San Jose won its third straight at SAP Center.
The Sharks got their first three goals Saturday night from some unusual sources, as Marc-Edouard Vlasic had his first career two-goal game, and Chris Tierney scored on the power play in the second period.
The Stars trailed 2-1 but had the first 11 shots of the third, including a Tyler Seguin goal_his 25th of the season --just 33 seconds into the period to tie the game. Vlasic got that goal back as his slap shot on a Sharks power play got past a screened Niemi for a 3-2 San Jose lead.
Dallas responded just 12 seconds later, 8:03 into the third period, as a Jason Spezza snap shot from over 40 feet away beat Sharks goalie Martin Jones to tie the score. It was Spezza’s 15th of the season. The Sharks scored two goals in the first 11:07 of the second period to take a 2-1 lead. At even strength, Vlasic skated into the slot, took a pass from Joe Thornton and beat Niemi between the legs to tie the game 3:54 into the second.
Then on the tail end of a Sharks power play, Tommy Wingels put a shot on net that Niemi kicked out. But Tierney collected the rebound and scored his second in three games to give the Sharks the lead. The Stars came into Saturday just 1-4-1 in 2016, scoring two or fewer goals five times. They were leading the Central Division by nine points Jan. 1 but were in second, trailing Chicago by two points, entering the game.
The Stars opened the scoring with 8:45 left in a frenetic first period, as Mattias Janmark skated around the Sharks’ net and sent the puck toward the far boards. Three Sharks players watched Janmark, who picked up the puck and passed to an open Ales Hemsky in front of the net. Hemsky then beat Jones for his fourth of the season and a 1-0 Dallas lead. The Sharks outshot the Stars 14-13 in the first period and drew iron twice, including on a shot attempt by Brenden Dillon late in the period that got through traffic and past Niemi but hit the cross bar.It was Niemi’s first time back at SAP Center as a member of the visiting team since the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs, when he backstopped the Chicago Blackhawks to a 4-0 sweep of the Sharks.
Niemi, who was in net for the Stars’ 5-3 win over San Jose on Oct. 31 in Dallas, is 5-0 all-time against the Sharks, including playoffs.Dainius Zubrus skated with the Sharks on Saturday for the first time since he suffered an upper body injury in San Jose’s game against Detroit on January 7. Zubrus, who was placed on injured reserve Wednesday, remains day-to-day with no timetable to participate in a full practice, according to DeBoer.
_Sharks television broadcaster Randy Hahn called his 1,500th game Saturday night. Hahn began doing play-by-play on selected Sharks television broadcasts for two seasons starting in 1991, then began to call Sharks games full time in 1993.
Barracuda coach Roy Sommer remains one victory behind Fred “Bun” Cook for the AHL record for career coaching wins as the Iowa Wild beat San Jose 2-1 in overtime on Saturday night in Des Moines.
Gustav Olofsson scored for the Wild 11:14 into overtime to defeat the Barracuda, which is now 7-0-2 in its last nine games. Sommer has 635 career wins in 1,379 games and has another chance to tie the record of 636 on Monday at 1:15 p.m. when the Barracuda hosts the Bakersfield Condors at SAP Center.