Sharks blow away Stars 6-2

Saturday, November 29, 2008-1:40:am
/Andrew's Dallas Stars Page                            

It was a familiar story Friday night for the Dallas Stars. Once again they were hoping to build on a win and once again they seemed to take a big step back. This time it was a 6-2 loss to the San Jose Sharks at the American Airlines Center.

"It's really tough right now. We got a win the other night [in Minnesota] and we just fell apart tonight," said defenseman Darryl Sydor. "The hole is getting deeper if we don't turn this around."

The Stars failed once again to win consecutive games, something they have yet to do this season. They fell to 7-11-4 on the season, their home record dropped to 2-4-3 and they remain firmly planed in last place in their division, conference and the league overall.

As far as Friday's performance it was round up a lot of the usual suspects that have plagued the team at times this season.

"We have a lot of parts of our game that have to be better," said Stars coach Dave Tippett. "Our power play wasn't very good, we can't keep a puck out on the penalty kill, our goaltending has to better and we have to find a way to stay with the game."

The Stars were able to stay with the game early. After the Sharks capitalized on a turnover to take a 1-0 lead at 11:45 of the first period, the Stars bounced back to tie the game 1:31 later when Loui Eriksson scored his 11th of the season.

But a little more than a minute later San Jose scored just 11 seconds into their first power play when Dan Boyle scored from point off a faceoff win. A little more than four minutes later - and with just 1:15 left in the first - Boyle scored again, moving down the slot, taking a pass from Joe Thornton and ripping a shot by Stars goalie Marty Turco to make it a 3-1 game.

"We were chasing the game right from there," said Tippett.

By the end of the second period the Sharks had chased Turco from the game, scoring two more times to make it a 5-1 game.

"There are certain players we expect a lot more from and it starts in goal with Marty," said Tippett. "Right now, with our lineup, we just have to have good goaltending to have a chance."

Turco played 40 minutes and allowed five goals on 19 shots.

"It's disheartening, you want to do so much more, be the guy that turns this around but we know we have to do this together," Turco said. "Thought it could've been a big night for us tonight, a big spark, but in fact it was the total opposite."

Backup Tobias Stephan played the final 20 minutes, stopping 10 of 11 shots. When asked if Stephan might get the start Sunday against Edmonton, Tippett said: "Everything is wide open for discussion."

But it wasn't just goaltending. Special teams were once again an area where the Stars came up on the short end of the ledger. The Sharks scored on their first two power play chances in the game, helping them build a 4-1 lead by early in the second period. The Stars ended up 0-5 on the power play and are now 0-21 over the last four games.

"We've got people we are relying on to get the job done on special teams and the job is not getting done," said Tippett. "Our group has a lot of issues that have to be better if we are going to win."

The win was the sixth straight for the Sharks, who are 13-1-1 in their last 15 games and are now 19-3-1 on the season.

"We were happy with our complete game," said San Jose coach Todd McLellan. "It started in training camp. The guys came in ready to grasp onto something and we've been rewarded with some early wins. They're starting to believe in it. The depth of the club has helped us. When the big line isn't going, there's always someone there to pick them up."