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Neal, Modano help Stars end slide

Mar 4, 2009 - 7:32 AM SAN JOSE, California (Ticker) -- A change of scenery helped the Dallas Stars finally end their woes.

Rookie James Neal scored twice and Mike Modano added a goal and set up another as the Dallas Stars forged a 4-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday.

Brian Sutherby also found the back of the net and added an assist while Marty Turco finished with 24 saves for Dallas, which suffered five straight losses to end its recent six-game homestand before heading out for a trio of contests in California.

"This is huge. We were on a five-game skid there and not a worse time than right now," Sutherby said. "Early on in the skid we played some good games and games maybe we thought we should have won. The last couple we weren't happy with so it was nice to get out on the road and beat a very good hockey team."

Joe Thornton notched the only goal for the Sharks, who had beaten Dallas in each of the previous four meetings this season after being ousted by the Stars in the first round of the playoffs last campaign.

"We wanted to be physical, we wanted to stand our ground," Sharks coach Todd McLellan said. "I thought we lost a little bit of focus maybe on what the ultimate prize was and that was the win."

Owners of the best record in the conference, San Jose (42-11-9) endured its second straight loss after winning five of its previous six, struggling to keep up with the feisty Stars.

"You have to stay out of the box," Sharks left wing Ryane Clowe said. "You can't take stupid penalties because then the guys we are playing like Patty Marleau are wearing down by killing penalties. You just cant take stupid penalties. We have to pick it up. We have lost the last three out of four (games) and we are in March."

Dallas opened the scoring 6:35 into the first period when Neal picked up a rebound on the doorstep and snapped it past a diving Brian Boucher, who made 27 saves.

After defenseman Nicklas Grossman was whistled for holding 74 seconds later, Thornton evened the score with 42 seconds remaining on the power play when he deflected a pass in the crease past Turco.

The Stars took the lead for good with three seconds left on a 5-on-3 power play early in the second period after Joe Pavelski was hit with a five-minute major and ejected for head-butting late in the first period and defenseman Rob Blake was whistled for cross checking 2:27 into the second.

"We might have lost our focus a little bit there," Pavelski said. "As a team we need to be mentally stronger and learn how to play those games and not go over the edge. We are good enough to be able to push to that line and not cross it. We may have crossed it tonight."

Modano received a pass through the slot from Mike Ribeiro and fired a one-timer from the bottom of the right face-off circle into the net as Boucher was sliding to the opposite post.

"We had some good looks throughout that whole session of power play and some pretty good saves by Boucher," Modano said. "But the next trip down its just a nice pass by (Ribeiro) and I was able to get it through (Boucher's) legs moving across. But for the most part, we did some things we generally try to do on the power play in that situation and that was a big goal right there."

Sutherby's tally off a loose puck gave the Stars some breathing room 6:32 into the third and Neal's 20th goal 83 seconds later sealed the victory.

"We created a lot of chances, we capitalized on our chances, we defended hard when we had to and Turco made some great saves when he had to," Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "We competed really, really hard and that's the way its going to have to be if we're going to be successful. We did that tonight and found a way to win."