Sharks 4, Stars 3 (OT)
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Left winger Tomas Hertl scored 1:12 into overtime to give the San Jose Sharks a 4-3 win over the Dallas Stars on Saturday night at sold-out SAP Center.
San Jose's second straight post-regulation victory stretched its winning streak to five. Marc-Edouard Vlasic assisted Hertl's winner after scoring two goals in the same game for the first time in his career.
The Stars tied the score 33 seconds into the third period when center Tyler Seguin scored between the pads of Sharks goalie Martin Jones from the mid-slot after center Joe Pavelski failed to clear.
Dallas cranked off the first 11 shots of the third period until left winger Jamie Benn committed a tripping penalty 200 feet from his net. Vlasic scored his second goal of the night on the power play, a blast from the top of the left circle at 7:51.
But San Jose's 3-2 lead did last long. Dallas center Jason Spezza adjusted to a pass behind him to produce a turnaround shot from the top of the right circle that picked the top far corner of the net at 8:03 for a 3-3 tie.
The Sharks' barrage of shots that didn't lead to any results early resulted in a better fortune in the second period as the hosts scored twice to take a 2-1 lead into the third period.
Vlasic jumped into the rush to take a feed from center Joe Thornton and fire a low shot just inside the far post from the slot to beat Dallas goalie Antti Niemi at 3:54. It was Vlasic's sixth goal of the season.
Thornton tied Stan Makita for 17th place on the career assists list with No. 926.
San Jose gained the tiebreaker late on its first power play of the game. After the first unit struggled to get anything going, center Chris Tierney was the unlikely source to connect during the five-on-four advantage.
With just seven seconds left on Dallas defenseman Alex Goligoski's interference penalty, Tierney scored his fifth of the season at 11:07 on a rebound of a shot originally taken by right winger Tommy Wingels.
The Stars scored the only goal of a first period that featured the two teams combining for 29 shots. San Jose outshot Dallas 16-13.
Dallas right winger Ales Hemsky beat Jones one-on-one with a backhand over the prone goalie's right pad at 11:15 on the visitors' 10th shot of the period.
Stars center Mattias Janmark keyed the sequence by beating San Jose's Logan Couture to a loose puck along the boards and centering a feed to Hemsky, who was all alone in front. Janmark hustled behind the net to chase down a rebound of his own shot from a bad angle.
San Jose had all kinds of close calls in the period against Niemi. He stopped left winger Melker Karlsson on a mini-break at 2:10, made a glove save to rob Wingels at 14:35 and threw the right pad out to deny defenseman Brent Burns at 16:00.
Defensemen Paul Martin and Brenden Dillon each drew iron with drives from the blue line late in the period.
NOTES: Dallas G Antti Niemi made his first return to SAP Center. Niemi finished his five-year run with San Jose with the franchise's second most wins for goalies with 163. Only Evgeni Nabokov has more (293). ... San Jose RW Raffi Torres appeared in his second game on Saturday 24 hours after making his season debut during a conditioning stint with the San Jose Barracuda of the AHL. ... Dallas loaned D Jamie Oleksiak to the Texas Stars on a conditioning assignment. Oleksiak has two assists in 11 games for Dallas. ... San Jose LW Dainius Zubrus remains out with an upper-body injury. ... Stars C Tyler Seguin appeared in his 400th career game on Saturday. ... RW Ben Smith and D Matt Tennyson were healthy scratches for San Jose while D Jyrki Jokipakka and RW Patrick Eaves did not dress for Dallas. ... The Sharks host Ottawa on Monday while the Stars cap their three-game trip in Los Angeles on Tuesday.