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Setoguchi scores twice in debut, leads Sharks past Stars

Oct 30, 2007 - 4:31 AM By John Tranchina PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

DALLAS (Ticker) -- What a way to start a career.

Rookie Devin Setoguchi led a three-goal outburst in the final period - and scored his first two goals in the final 8:07 of his first NHL game - to lift the San Jose Sharks to a come-from-behind 4-2 victory over the Dallas Stars on Monday.

With Dallas leading, 2-1, past the midway point of the third period and on a power play, right wing Jere Lehtinen rang a backhander from the slot off the post. Once the penalty was killed off, Sharks coach Ron Wilson moved Setoguchi onto Joe Thornton's line and the comeback was on.

"It didn't look good for a while, when you're playing a team that's like tupperware - once they close the lid and burp it, you're done," Wilson said. "For seven or eight minutes, we needed a couple of big saves from Nabby (goaltender Evgeni Nabokov) and on PK (penalty kill), a lucky pipe, and then we found our game with 10 minutes to go."

"I thought the power play when Lehtinen hit the post, we had a couple of chances there," Dallas coach Dave Tippett said. "In the second period, we started taking the game away from them. That ended after that power play. Some mistakes were made on our end by people we rely on to shut people down, and they put the puck in the back of the net twice."

Setoguchi, recalled Sunday from San Jose's AHL affiliate in Worcester, scored again with 5:33 remaining on a wrist shot past Stars netminder Marty Turco to give the Sharks a 3-2 lead.

"I was definitely nervous (in the) first period, but I settled down and Coach gave me a chance in the third," Setoguchi said. "I was just going to the net, and getting a pass like that, it's hard not to score (on the first goal). Joe (Thornton) made an unbelievable pass from his knees and I just walked in and put the puck on net."

Thornton assisted on both of Setoguchi's goals, each on nice feeds from behind the Dallas net.

"I think I waited about 30 games for my first goal, so he's already passed me," Thornton said. "It's good for him, good to get a young guy some confidence and let him go from here."

But Setoguchi is not satisfied with just one big game. The 20-year-old is looking forward to a lengthy career in San Jose.

"That's just a start," said Setoguchi, who shot wide of an empty net in the final minute for the hat trick. "Now, here on in, I've got to play good game-in and game-out, because I want to stick here. I think I gave myself a good chance tonight, but I want to keep it going here."

With the victory, which snapped a two-game losing streak, the Sharks moved ahead of both Dallas and idle Los Angeles to take over the lead in the Pacific Division.

Center Joe Pavelski scored his fifth goal against the Stars in just his sixth career game against them for the Sharks. Right wing Steve Bernier sealed the victory with a wrist shot over Turco's shoulder just 17 seconds after Setoguchi's second goal.

"It's not the prettiest goal I ever scored, but I'm going to take it," Bernier said. "It made it 4-2, and when it's 4-2, you get more life on the bench, you feel a little bit looser. That was an important goal."

"That turnover shouldn't have been made, but it was a poor goal," said Tippett of Bernier's goal. "Our goaltender should have stopped that one."

For Dallas, center Mike Modano earned an assist on rookie defenseman Matt Niskanen's first NHL goal in the second period, giving Dallas a 2-1 lead. The assist gave Modano 1,231 career points, one behind Phil Housley for the most ever by an American-born player.

"I want to get it behind us and move on," said Modano of the looming milestone. "It's been tough for us to extend leads and we just don't get that one goal to extend the lead. We were playing cautious and when you play like that, it's going to come back to haunt us."

"It certainly was a fun moment at that point," said Niskanen, who was skating in his 11th game. "It was not the way I imagined it, with the puck bouncing around like that. All I know is that I hit it in the air and then saw it floating in. It was kind of a greasy goal but I'll take it."

Center Mike Ribeiro got the Stars on the board, popping in a rebound from the crease off defenseman Philippe Boucher's blast from the blue line at 10:26 of the first period. For the 27-year-old, it was his seventh point in his last four games.

San Jose got that one back less than two minutes later when Pavelski swept around the Stars' net for a wrap-around that just beat a sliding Turco across the crease to the far post for a 1-1 tie.

Niskanen then ripped a slap shot from the blue line that deflected off a sliding Sharks defender and past Nabokov.