Heiskanen, Ritchie score in 3rd, Stars beat Sharks 3-2

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Saturday, December 8, 2018

DALLAS -- Ben Bishop bought enough time for Dallas to rally for its fourth consecutive victory.

Bishop made a season-high 41 saves and Miro Heiskanen and Brett Ritchie scored in the third period, sending the Stars to a 3-2 win over the San Jose Sharks on Friday night.

"Ben Bishop's the reason why we won that game," coach Jim Montgomery said. "We were bad in the first, and thank God, Ben Bishop wasn't."

The game was tied at 1 before Heiskanen scored from the top of the right faceoff circle 4:38 into the third. Ritchie then got his second of the season at 6:26, making it 3-1 Dallas.

"The last period was good for us, and it was a fun way to win this game," Heiskanen said.

Evander Kane and Logan Couture scored for San Jose. Erik Karlsson had two assists, and Martin Jones stopped 27 shots.

The Sharks were coming off consecutive wins against Montreal and Carolina.

"We wanted to build on that," coach Peter DeBoer said. "I loved our first period. Bishop, I thought, kept it from being two or three at the end of the first."

Kane said his team was too relaxed.

"One-goal leads, two-goal leads, teams are coming back on us because we're not finishing," he said. "We need to ramp up the intensity."

The Sharks dominated the first period, outshooting Dallas 13-5. San Jose nearly scored 1:14 into the game when Timo Meier's shot from the slot hit the right post.

At 9:22, Kane took a pass from Karlsson on the inside edge of the left circle and slid the puck inside the left post for his eighth goal of the season.

On a 2-on-0 break at the end of a Dallas power play early in the second period, Bishop trapped the puck under his pads. It trickled into the net, but the play had been whistled dead.

The Stars tied the game at 14:05. Roman Polak sent the puck out of the Dallas end and Mattias Janmark picked it up at the San Jose blue line for a breakaway. He beat Jones for his second goal of the season.

"We have the 2-on-0 and the disallowed goal at one end," DeBoer said, "and they get a breakaway at the other end and we leave the period 1-1 instead of going up 2-nothing."

Dallas had a 2-on-1 break that put the puck in the net with 2:14 left in the second, but the officials ruled Jamie Benn had kicked it in.

Couture tipped in a shot by Karlsson 31 seconds after Ritchie's goal. But San Jose was shut out the rest of the way.

Game notes

Dallas C Martin Hanzal played for the first time since undergoing offseason spine surgery. "It was probably the hardest game of my life," the 14-year veteran said. "I felt like the first period I was a little bit nervous. I thought I got better in the second, and the third I was out of gas." ... Sharks C Joe Thornton played in his 1,514th game, tying Steve Yzerman for 18th on the NHL career list. ... Kane's goal was his first in nine games.

UP NEXT

Sharks: Complete a quick two-game trip at Arizona on Saturday.

Stars: Begin a four-game trip Sunday at Vegas. They visit San Jose on Thursday.