(AP Photo/Sharon Ellman)

By Pearl Allison Lo

With Antti Niemi, the San Jose Sharks’ fourth line was tops over the Dallas Stars with a 5-1 win Thursday heading into the Stadium Series.

Andrew Desjardins’ second goal of the night was the game-winner and marked a season-high for him. It was also Desjardins’ second career two-goal game. Justin Braun and Tomas Hertl aided at 6:15 to make it 3-0. The goal also took out starting goalie Kari Lehtonen in favor of Jhonas Enroth.

Desjardins’ fellow linemates Hertl had two assists overall and Chris Tierney had one. Niemi stopped 37 shots, his most since October 30.

Dallas’ Trevor Daley had a goal and an assist and Jamie Benn had two assists.

The Stars outshot the Sharks 15-4 in the third.

San Jose scored first at 3:24 of the first period. Joe Pavelski passed to Logan Couture who skillfully skated away from his defender and Marc-Edouard Vlasic crashed the net.

Initially credited to Hertl, Desjardins scored his first goal at 3:38 of the second after tipping Hertl’s shot. Tierney’s assist came during this sequence.

Dallas got on the board just over 30 seconds into San Jose’s first penalty kill at 8:00. Benn’s attempts landed against Niemi’s pad and then Daley came in to put the puck through. Jason  Spezza earned his 36th assist.

The Stars then added real pressure 17:44 into the third. After Niemi had already made two saves, Benn found Erik Cole from behind the net to make it 3-2. Daley got his assist on the play.Patrick Marleau though, gave the Sharks more breathing room with an empty netter at 18:55, aided by James Sheppard and Tommy Wingels added another 11 seconds later to put the game out of reach. Wingels was helped by Pavelski and Brenden Dillon.

Game notes: Dallas had 13 giveaways. Vlasic had seven of the Sharks’ 24 blocked shots. San Jose is now 0-5 on the power play in the last two games. Brent Burns got into his first regular season scrap as a member of the Sharks, his second overall. The last time San Jose scored five goals was February 5 against the Canucks, as the Sharks broke their three-game losing streak. San Jose is now tied with Calgary, one point behind Vancouver and two points ahead of the Kings. The Sharks will now travel home for the Stadium Series to host Los Angeles Saturday at 7pm.