"They could afford to joke about it this time.

The Sharks skated away with a convincing 5- 2 victory over the Dallas Stars at HP Pavilion on Thursday night. It was their third consecutive victory. Their power play looked rejuvenated. The goals by Michal Handzus, Joe Pavelski, Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton and Ryane Clowe showed the team's scoring touch had returned.

So there wasn't any angst tied to the fact that a franchise-record shutout streak that stretched over four games ended when defenseman Dan Boyle fired the puck into his own net while trying to keep it away from Dallas pest Steve Ott.

"Weird one by Dan, but we've seen him do that before," said a smiling Joe Thornton, referring back to the third game of San Jose's first-round 2010 playoff series, when a puck off Boyle's stick gave the Colorado Avalanche a 1-0 overtime victory.

But just as they rebounded to win that series, the Sharks didn't let that deter them Thursday night. And even Boyle didn't seem too traumatized by the mistake that ended San Jose's shutout streak at 190:51 -- almost a full period longer than the previous mark of 171:18."