Joe Pavelski sparks Sharks past Stars

SAN JOSE -- Joe Pavelski scored two goals and Aaron Dell made 29 saves to help the San Jose Sharks to a 5-1 win against the Dallas Stars at SAP Center on Sunday.
Patrick Marleau, Joel Ward and Chris Tierney also scored for the Sharks (41-20-7), who rebounded from a 3-1 loss to the Nashville Predators on Saturday and remained seven points ahead of the Anaheim Ducks for first place in the Pacific Division.

WATCH: All Stars vs. Sharks highlights
"We had a good effort tonight," Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. "First period, I thought we started a little slow, which is probably natural in a back-to-back. I thought in the second and third period we started to play our game. That's not an easy game to play. They're a desperate team. They've got a lot of skill and speed, and Dell let us get our legs under us. I thought he was excellent early and from there we took over."

Remi Elie scored for Dallas (27-31-10). Kari Lehtonen allowed three goals on eight shots and was pulled early in the second period for former Sharks goalie Antti Niemi, who made 16 saves.
Marleau gave San Jose a 1-0 lead at 3:56 of the first period. He took a pass from Logan Couture and beat Lehtonen from the right circle to the far side.
Elie capitalized on a Sharks turnover and knocked his own rebound past Dell from close range at 12:54 of the first period for his first NHL goal to make it 1-1.
Pavelski put the Sharks back ahead 2-1 at 17:14 with a wrist shot from the right circle on an odd-man rush.
The Stars outshot San Jose 15-6 in the opening period.

"We made a couple of big mistakes," Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. "We had a [defenseman] fall down on the one goal. We turned the puck over in the neutral zone. That got us in trouble. You know, you dominate a period but you don't put the puck in the back of the net, and then you make a couple of mistakes that end up in the back of your net."
Ward extended San Jose's lead to 3-1 at 2:46 of the second period with a wrist shot from the slot.
Pavelski scored a shorthanded goal on a breakaway at 12:26 of the second to make it 4-1.
Tierney scored from the slot at 3:34 of the third.
"A lot of guys played pretty big roles tonight," Pavelski said. "I don't think it was one or two or three guys. Tonight was an effort on a back to back. It's a four-line game. That's how we win. That's how we believe we will win here."

Goal of the game

With Jannik Hansen streaking down the left side and creating a 2-on-1 rush, Pavelski kept the puck down the right and scored on a wrist shot to the far side.

Save of the game

Dell did some of his best work in the first period when he made 14 saves, including a pad save of Jamie Benn's wrist shot from the slot at 14:55.

Unsung performance of the game

Hansen had four hits, two takeaways, drew a penalty and has a plus-2 rating in 13:21 of ice time.

Highlight of the game

Pavelski was on the ice to take a faceoff during a penalty kill and jumped on a turnover by Stars defenseman Esa Lindell at the blue line, skated to the other end and beat Niemi with a wrist shot into the upper right corner of the net for his second goal. It was his ninth career short-handed goal and first since Feb. 1, 2014.

They said it

"It's always going to be a race to the end, and everyone wants to be in that top spot. You want to get home ice. I think we always are watching who we'd be playing or how other teams are faring." -- Sharks defenseman Paul Martin
"It's tough to describe. It's been hard, and we just have to keep on working and doing our best and not be too focused on all the negative stuff that's happened." -- Stars goaltender Antti Niemi

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Need to know

Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic played his 800th NHL game. ... Marleau scored his 504th NHL goal and moved past Peter Bondra into 42nd place on the all-time list. ... Defenseman Greg Pateryn played his second game for the Stars since being acquired from the Montreal Canadiens on Feb. 2. ... Sharks forward Melker Karlsson was out of the lineup because of a lower-body injury. ... Sharks defenseman David Schlemko (lower-body injury) missed his fifth straight game but resumed skating Sunday morning.

What's next

Stars: At the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday (9 p.m. ET; FS-SW, SNW, NHL.TV)
Sharks: Host the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday (10:30 p.m. ET; MSG-B, CSN-CA, NHL.TV)