DALLAS – Andrew Desjardins scored two second-period goals and the San Jose Sharks held off the Dallas Stars 5-2 Thursday night.
Antti Niemi made 37 saves for the Sharks, who had lost two straight. The victory vaulted them into a tie for seventh place in the Western Conference with Calgary, tied for third in the Pacific Division.
The Stars had won four of their previous five games. They fell six points behind Calgary and San Jose in the race for the final wild-card berth.
Marc-Edouard Vlasic scored the Sharks' first goal. Patrick Marleau and Tommy Wingels scored into an empty net after Dallas cut a 3-0 deficit to 3-2 on goals by Trevor Daley and Erik Cole.
Tomas Hertl and Joe Pavelski had two assists for San Jose, and Jamie Benn had two for the Stars.
Dallas coach Lindy Ruff pulled goalie Kari Lehtonen after Desjardins' second goal. Lehtonen gave up three goals on 17 shots in a span of 26:15.
Backup Jhonas Enroth held San Jose scoreless while making nine saves before the Sharks got their empty-net goals.
The Stars lost despite outshooting the Sharks 39-28.
Vlasic scored 4:24 in when he tipped Logan Couture's pass from the right corner past Lehtonen.
Desjardins' goals came 2:37 apart. Hertl's shot hit Desjardins on the way to the upper right corner. The second came when Desjardins' wrist shot from above the right faceoff circle beat Lehtonen.
Hertl assisted on both goals.
Dallas scored on a power play when Daley slid the rebound of Benn's shot under Niemi. It was the defenseman's sixth power-play goal this season.
NOTES: Vlasic had not scored a goal in his previous 14 games since Jan. 6. . San Jose's Brenden Dillon and the Stars' Jason Demers, traded for each other in November, each played for the first time against his former team. Dillon had an assist. . LW Brendan Ranford made his NHL debut for the Stars. He's the nephew of Los Angeles Kings goalie coach Bill Ranford. . Benn has 15 points (nine goals, six assists) in his last 12 games. Jason Spezza's assist on Daley's goal gave the center a seven-game point streak with 11 points (three goals, eight assists). . Lehtonen had been 4-0 with a 1.49 goals against average in his previous four games. . Dallas sent D Patrick Nemeth to Texas of the AHL. He hasn't played since Oct. 18 because of an arm laceration.
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