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Ribeiro, Lehtinen score twice as Stars continue Sharks' struggles

Feb 19, 2007 - 1:18 AM DALLAS (Ticker) -- While they did get on the scoreboard, the San Jose Sharks again came up short.

Despite the Sharks snapping their scoreless drought, Mike Ribeiro and Jere Lehtinen scored two goals apiece for the Dallas Stars, who sent San Jose to its third consecutive road loss with a 5-2 victory.

Going a franchise-record 191 minutes, 22 seconds without a tally, the Sharks continued their anemic play on Sunday, falling behind by four goals before Mark Bell ended the drought with a power-play tally nearly two minutes into the third period.

"I don't know what it is, we came out hard, we came out physical but we didn't get enough shots on (Dallas goaltender) Marty (Turco) and didn't have enough traffic," San Jose center Joe Thornton said.

The Sharks won the first two games of their eight-game road trip before being shut out by Nashville on Wednesday and by Columbus two days later. Holding an 18-10-0 record away from home entering Sunday's contest, they have lost three straight on the road for the first time since March 2006.

"It's a little late in the season for moral victories," San Jose right wing Mike Grier said. "We're not getting it done, we're not playing well enough to win games."

After Stu Barnes started the scoring nearly seven minutes into the opening session, the Sharks took control of the game in the second period, tallying twice within the last five minutes of the session. Ribeiro scored with five minutes left and Lehtinen made it 3-1 with 16 seconds remaining.

"These are two big points for us," Lehtinen said. "We played tight defensively and we didn't give them too much space. Turco played great in goal and gave us a chance to win. It was a fun game to play and the physical play suits us well."

Despite ending their extended drought, the Sharks put themselves in too big of a hole. Just two minutes into the third, Sergei Zubov fired a slap shot from the point that deflected off Ribeiro's stick and goaltender Evgeni Nabokov's glove to make it 4-1.

"He's an opportunistic player," Stars coach Dave Tippett said of Zubov. "He seems to always find the right spots."

Lehtinen added an empty-net tally to cap the scoring in the final minutes, and Turco finished with 19 saves.

"Marty had a great game," said Dallas defenseman Darryl Sydor, who recorded three assists. "He came back and he has the flu today, and he comes back and has a great effort. It just shows the character in him, and he's our guy."