"We're playing a team that's like Tupperware. Once they close the lid and burp it, you're done,'' Wilson said of Stars, who have a reputation of shutting the door once they have the lead. "In the past, we haven't had games like this where we've stormed back on Dallas.''

On this night the Stars weren't able to shut the door and the Sharks did storm back, scoring three third period goals to erase a 2-1 deficit and beat the Stars 4-2 at the AAC.

It was the third time this season the Stars had lost a game when leading after two periods.

"Three of them this year is a big concern. It's a huge concern," said Stars coach Dave Tippett. "Good teams don't do that."

The Stars did it on this night and it took a couple of bad shifts to squander what had otherwise been a solid performance.

There's always talk about momentum in a hockey game and Monday night it shifted on a couple of shifts involving key lines for the Stars and Sharks.

The Stars' checking line of Joel Lundqvist, Jeff Halpern and Stu Barnes along with defenseman Stephane Robidas and Mattias Norstrom were victimized twice in a little more than two minutes by San Jose's big line centered by Joe Thornton line and two times it was Sharks rookie Devin Setoguchi, making his NHL debut, who finished the chances.

"They are a big team and their game plan is to play down low and when you keep feeding the fire it is coming to come back and burn you. That's exactly what we did," said Tippett. "We have people we rely on in those positions to get the job done and they didn't get the job done. It is simple as that."

Setoguchi's two goals turned a Dallas 2-1 lead into a 3-2 lead for San Jose and when Sharks forward Steve Bernier beat Marty Turco with a goal from the right circle 17 seconds after Setoguchi's second goal it was basically lights out for the Stars.

Up until the three goals in 2:51 span by the Sharks the Stars were in good shape. They had weathered an early push from the Sharks, who were coming off two straight losses that dropped them to the .500 mark on the season. The Stars had a strong second period in which a Matt Niskanen goal, his first in the NHL, put the Stars up 2-1.

The Stars seemed to still be in control in the third and almost pushed it to 3-1 while on the power play, but a Jere Lehtinen backhand shot rattled off the post.  Not long after that the Sharks launched that one final push that put them over the top and past the Stars.

"We had that power play in the third I thought we were around the game. We were fine," said Tippett. "We had a couple of poor shifts that end up in the back of our net and now you are chasing."

While not holding the lead is one thing, not extending is another. Not cashing in on the power play hurt, but Mike Modano said so did sitting on a lead.

"It's been tough for us to extend leads and we just don't get that one goal to extend the lead," Modano said. "We were playing cautious and when you play like that, it's going to come back to haunt us."

Tippett said sitting on the lead wasn't the problem.

"Not a bit, no," Tippett said when asked if cautious play was an issue. "I think there were poor mistakes, poor decisions."

The loss dropped the Stars to 5-4-2  on the season. Tippett said there could be some lineup changes in store, but said that will be an issue for Tuesday, when the team practices in Frisco.

"We have 15 forwards all very capable to playing and, believe me, the three guys who didn't play tonight are itching to play," he said. "We'll visit that tomorrow."

There were some positives for the Stars. Modano looked good at times again. The Morrow-Ribeiro-Lehtinen line had some strong moments. And Niskanen followed up Saturday's strong game with another outstanding performance Monday night.

Marty Turco was sharp early in the game when San Jose was shooting anything and everything on the net, but he'd probably like to have that fourth goal, the one by Bernier, back.

Overall, the Stars were in pretty good shape up until about 50 minutes into the game. Then it just fell apart.

• With his goal Monday Stars center Mike Ribeiro ran his points streak to six games (three goals, six assists).
• Brenden Morrow ran his points streak to six games (three goals, five assists) with an assist on the Ribeiro goal.
• Matt Niskanen's goal was his first in the NHL.
• The Stars are now 4-1-2 when leading after two periods this season.