Sharks Falter in Third to Lose to Stars, 3-2

For the first two periods of last night's match, the Sharks played with the intensity fans have become accustomed to seeing over the last few weeks. Sadly, it takes three periods of solid performance to win a hockey match, which the Sharks simply lacked. The third period was dominated by Dallas, who came back from a 2-1 deficit to notch two goals in the final period to steal a win in San Jose. Loul Eriksson scored for Dallas 7:37 into the third period, and Jason Williams gave Dallas the lead with 7:12 remaining in the contest.

A late power play gave the Sharks a final chance, but like the rest of the night, the Sharks could not deliver when holding the man advantage. The Sharks went 0-3 on the power play against Dallas, who held the 26th-best power play kill entering the night. Furthermore, the Sharks allowed a short handed goal less than two minutes into the contest, demonstrating their inability to capitalize when holding the advantage.

Tensions escalated with under a minute to go, when a late scramble in front of the Dallas net resulted in what appeared to be a Sharks goal. However, the referee had called the play dead monents before the puck was slapped into the back of the net. Instead of tying up the game, the Sharks were forced to replicate their efforts, which simply did not happen. Though the play was called dead since the ref could not locate the puck, the play did seem very much alive with the puck moving unsecured in the goal crease. While the referee was following protocol (call play dead if the location of the puck is lost), it does sting extra hard considering the context of the game.

Despite outshooting the Stars 31-28, winning the faceoff battle, and committing less penalties, tonight belonged to Dallas.