Johnston has 3 points, Stars defeat Sharks for 5th straight win

SAN JOSE -- Wyatt Johnston had two goals and an assist for the Dallas Stars in a 6-3 win against the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center on Tuesday.

Jamie Benn had a goal and two assists, and Jason Robertson scored twice for the Stars (45-19-9), who have won five straight. Scott Wedgewood made 17 saves.

"Everyone’s really churning right now and contributing and playing the right way and not deviating from what works and what we want to do," Robertson said. "So, it's encouraging to see and I think it's contagious."

William Eklund had a goal and an assist, and Mackenzie Blackwood made 35 saves for the Sharks (16-47-8), who have lost eight straight (0-7-1) and 17 of their past 18 (1-14-3).

"I didn’t like our physicality, or lack thereof," San Jose coach David Quinn said. "We’re better than that, and we've been better than that. But unfortunately we were slow closing in on people. I thought they just had way, way too much room all night."

Johnston put Dallas ahead 1-0 at 12:06 of the first period on a short-handed breakaway.

Mason Marchment made it 2-0 at 16:28. He made a move around Nico Sturm in the neutral zone, skated past Kyle Burroughs down the right wing, and scored short side from the bottom of the circle.

"The whole first period I don't think we were good enough," Sharks forward Mikael Granlund said. "We got a little bit better as the game went on, but just couldn't do it today."

Robertson scored 14 seconds into the second period to extend the lead to 3-0.

"That's a tough spot to be in down 3-0, especially with the season [and] the spot they’re in right now," Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. "It would’ve been easy to quit and they didn’t. It's a credit to their coach and their group. They kept plugging away and kept fighting and made us earn it."

Alexander Barabanov scored 40 seconds later for San Jose to make it 3-1, and Eklund cut it to 3-2 at 2:00 with a one-timer from the right circle for a power-play goal.

Benn made it 4-2 at 8:05 when he batted the puck out of the air with his backhand.

Klim Kostin responded to make it 4-3 at 8:58, scoring glove side with a wrist shot from the left circle.

Johnston's second of the game made it 5-3 at 10:33. He got behind the defense on a rush, took a return pass from Benn and finished with his backhand.

Robertson scored on a power play at 11:45 of the third period for the 6-3 final.

"Now is the time of year where there's not much more fine-tuning you can do," Benn said. "You’ve got to be on top of your game and feeling good going into the playoffs. We’ve got [nine] more here to keep it solid."

NOTES: Barabanov left in the second period with an undisclosed injury. Quinn did not have an update after the game. ... Benn extended his goal streak to five games (six goals) and his point streak to seven games (six goals, four assists). ... Marchment scored his 20th goal of the season. He is the seventh player to reach the mark for the Stars this season, the most they have had in a season since 1985-86.