Late goal, missed opportunities doom Sharks as road losing streak continues

The Sharks were unable to capitalize on particular third-period scoring opportunities Friday and instead allowed a go-ahead goal to Sam Steel with left in regulation time in what became a - loss to the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center to open a five-game road trip Steel put a shot on net that Sharks goalie Yaroslav Askarov could not quite control A second effort by Steel ended up going through Askarov s legs off the far post and in for a - Stars lead Mikko Rantanen added an insurance goal at the mark of the third period for Dallas just before Macklin Celebrini had a goal with to go in regulation which was taken away after the Stars successfully challenged for offside Dallas added an empty-net goal by Miro Heiskanen with left in the third helping to hand the Sharks - - their fifth straight loss on the road Collin Graf scored the Sharks only goal as he netted his fourth of the season at the mark of the second period San Jose also had chances to tally in the third but failed to capitalize on two power plays in the final minutes The Sharks went -for- with the man advantage Philipp Kurashev took a pass from Mario Ferraro entered the Stars zone and sent the puck back to defenseman Nick Leddy at the point Leddy then sent a puck toward the Dallas net which went off a Stars participant before it came to Graf who fired it past goalie Jake Oettinger to tie the championship Graf s goal represented his th point in games this season He had points in games last season his full year as a professional after he signed with the Sharks a free agent in April a year after he helped Quinnipiac win the NCAA national championship The Sharks were whistled for two stick infractions in the first period and with Macklin Celebrini off for hooking forward Jason Robertson gave the Stars a - lead at After the Sharks lost a faceoff in their own end the Stars moved the puck to the other side of the ice before Wyatt Johnston took a pass from Mikko Rantanen and fired a shot from the slot that went off the crossbar The puck then came to Robertson who had a wide-open net behind Askarov and scored his th of the season The Sharks were hoping to bounce back from their the majority lopsided loss of the season a - thrashing at the hands of Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals on Wednesday Related Articles Misa plays waiting event as Sharks weigh decision Celebrini sees Crosby What drives Warsofsky nuts about the Sharks Klingberg discusses mistake Ovechkin scores twice as Sharks no-show in blowout loss to Capitals As Sharks Misa begins AHL conditioning stint are World Juniors next Sharks in awe of -year-old Ovechkin Is this his last encounter in San Jose Although the Sharks hoped not to be in that position in the first place they had done an excellent job in current weeks of bouncing back after a loss After their majority of newest eight defeats before Wednesday they bounced back with a win seven times That was going to be tough to do against a Stars band that had gone - - in its last games before Friday averaging close to four goals per event along the way Oettinger this season was - - with a save percentage in games before Friday On Wednesday though the Stars stated that center Tyler Seguin would miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL Seguin had points in games for the Stars this season