Cracknell's hat trick help Stars rout Sharks
DALLAS -- Adam Cracknell scored his first career hat trick and Kari Lehtonen made 20 saves for the Dallas Stars in a 6-1 win over the San Jose Sharks on Friday night at American Airlines Center.
Cracknell scored in the first, second and third periods. His final goal came 4:59 into the third when he intercepted an attempted clearance by Aaron Dell, who made 23 saves, just beyond the Sharks' blue line. Cracknell, who now has a career-high 10 goals this season, then beat Dell with a wrist shot from the slot.
Brett Ritchie, Jamie Benn and John Klingberg also scored for Dallas (30-33-11), who got three assists from Jason Spezza and two each from Remi Elie and Curtis McKenzie.
The Stars defeated the Sharks at home for the second time this week, also edging San Jose 1-0 on Monday.
Joe Thornton scored the goal for San Jose (42-25-7), which lost a fifth consecutive game. The Sharks have been outscored 16-5 during this current skid and are 0-3-0 on their current road trip.
Klingberg made it 6-1 with his 12th goal of the season just 21 seconds after Cracknell completed the hat trick, triggering a flurry of hats flying onto the ice, delaying the game briefly.
Cracknell gave Dallas an early lead 8:30 into the game. As Cracknell skated toward the visiting goal with the puck, it deflected off the right skate of Micheal Haley and through Dell's five-hole to make it 1-0.
Ritchie doubled the Dallas lead with his 14th goal of the season 1:58 into the second period. Tyler Seguin, appearing in his 500th career game, assisted with a cross-ice pass, which Ritchie one-timed in at the near post.
After Dell denied Seguin's one-timer from the slot 5:16 into the second period, Benn put Dallas ahead 3-0 with his 25th goal of the season. Cody Eakin won the faceoff in the left circle against Joe Pavelski, sending the puck to Ales Hemsky, who spotted Benn open at the near post. Benn then knocked in Hemsky's pass.
Cracknell added a second score, his ninth goal of the season, 7:08 into the second period. Spezza, who was returning from a two-game absence with back spasms, picked up his second assist of the game.
San Jose ended the shutout 49 seconds later when Thornton scored his seventh goal of the season off a rebound with the Sharks on the power play. Brent Burns took the initial shot from the slot, which rang off the left post. Thornton then collected and slipped in the rebound six seconds into the power play.
Dallas led 4-1 at the second intermission.
NOTES: The Sharks scratched D Dylan DeMelo, C Melker Karlsson and RW Tino Meier. ... The Stars scratched D Dan Hamhuis (lower body), RW Jiri Hudler (lower body) and LW Antoine Roussel (hand). ... Sharks RW Jannik Hansen returned after missing the previous two games with an upper-body injury. ... Dallas begins a five-game Eastern Conference road trip on Monday at New Jersey. ... San Jose finishes its road trip on Saturday at Colorado.