• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Nabokov, Sharks looking to even series with Stars

Apr 27, 2008 - 1:05 PM Dallas at San Jose 9:00 pm EDT Western Conference semifinals Stars lead, 1-0

SAN JOSE, California (Ticker) - Coming off an overtime loss in the series opener, the San Jose Sharks will hope to even the series at one win apiece Sunday when they host the Dallas Stars for Game Two of the Western Conference semifinals on Sunday.

A Vezina Trophy finalist, Sharks goaltender Evgeni Nabokov looked anything but in Friday's 3-2 loss to the Stars in Game One - surrendering three goals on just 18 shots.

Captain Brenden Morrow scored his second goal of the night 4:39 into overtime, giving the fifth-seeded Stars the critical series-opening win over the second-seeded Sharks.

Mike Modano also tallied and Mike Ribeiro added a pair of assists for Dallas, which overcame being decisively outshot to improve to 7-0-1 in its last eight visits to HP Pavilion.

The Stars are 3-1 on the road in the playoffs.

Milan Michalek and Jonathan Cheechoo netted goals for San Jose, which lost Game One in its opening series to the Calgary Flames by the same margin.

"It's always difficult when you lose, especially at home," Cheechoo said. "It happened last series, too, so we just have to put it behind us and come ready to play on Sunday."

After registering just two shots in the first period and five in the third, the Stars posted the only three of overtime, with the last one helping them steal home-ice advantage from the Sharks.

"We did the same thing against Anaheim (in the quarterfinals) and it turned out huge for us," Morrow said. "If you are the road team, you want to go in and steal one and find a way to get home ice back."

From the left point, defenseman Mattias Norstrom made cross-ice pass to Morrow, who blasted a one-timer from the right faceoff dot past the left pad of Nabokov and inside the right goalpost to cap his second multi-goal effort of the postseason.

Dallas has gone on to win the previous eight playoff series in which it captured the opener.