By RICK EYMER
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) _ Jamie Benn stole the puck from Tomas Hertl and scored the go-ahead goal with 3:06 left before finishing a hat trick with an empty-netter to give the Dallas Stars a 4-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night.
Mike McKenna, who replaced an injured Kari Lehtonen, got the victory after stopping all 17 shots he faced. McKenna last played in the NHL for the Arizona Coyotes on Feb. 16, 2015.
Gemel Smith scored with 5:17 left in the third period to tie it. Devon Shore won a battle along the boards and rushed the net, tapping it to Smith at the last second.
Logan Couture set a career-high with his 33rd goal of the season and Timo Meier scored No. 20 for the Sharks, who lost their fourth straight.
Lehtonen left the game with an upper-body injury with 4:06 remaining in the first period. He took a puck to the facemask, though that may be incidental to a possible injury in the neck area. Lehtonen saved 12 of 14 shots.
Couture put the Sharks ahead 1-0 after taking a pass from Brent Burns and firing it into the net from long range midway through the first period.
Meier added to the lead six minutes later after chasing down a puck that had bounced off Lehtonen’s pads. He fired from the right side, finding a hole under Lehtonen’s glove.
Benn made it 2-1 late in the second period, redirecting a centering pass from John Klingberg off Jones’ shoulder pad and into the net. He added an empty-net goal in the closing seconds.
NOTES: Benn has points in 10 of his last 13 games. … Stars C Tyler Seguin has points in each of his past four games and six of seven overall. … Sharks F Evander Kane missed the game with an apparent arm injury suffered at Las Vegas on Saturday night. … Sharks’ C Dylan Gambrell made his NHL debut. … The Sharks signed Sasha Chmelevski to a contract and assigned him to the AHL Barracudas. “Blessed to have signed my first NHL contract,” he tweeted.
UP NEXT
Stars: Play at the Anaheim Ducks on Friday.
Sharks: Host the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday.