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SAN JOSE, Calif. – The Dallas Stars got about 50 percent of what a healthy Sergei Zubov can usually provide them Sunday night.

Even that was enough for Dallas to take control of this second-round series with a convincing 5-2 victory.

The Sharks wisely stayed out of the penalty box for most of Game 2 at HP Pavilion. When Dallas finally went on the power play for the first time in the third period, it took the Stars all of 17 seconds to score and grab the lead.

The goal came off the stick of Mike Modano, but it was set up by an amazing backhand, cross-ice whiparound pass by Zubov, a move no other defenseman on the Stars' roster would even think to attempt.

"That's shinny [pickup] hockey at its finest," coach Dave Tippett said. "But it's part of Zubie's game. The way we look at it, he's had three months of rest, not three months of rust."

That goal gave the Stars their first lead of the night at 3-2 just 3:39 into the third period. It followed by three minutes Brad Richards' tying goal, which was set up by the Sharks' Joe Pavelski falling down in his own end and leaving the puck on Richards' stick.

So when it came to being opportunistic, the Stars were present and accounted for. And when it came time for someone to make a big winning play to break a 2-2 tie, it was Zubov's sensational pass that sent the game in Dallas' favor.

Modano, who has 11 seasons of experience playing on power plays with Zubov, said the pass even surprised him. "But it was nice and hard. And on those passes, the harder the better," he said. "It makes it that much easier to handle."

Niklas Hagman pretty much assured the victory with 6:05 to play when he took a pass off the net from Richards to make it 4-2. For good measure, Hagman added an empty-net goal with 1:15 to go.

Hagman had been playing most of the third period on Richards' line in place of Joel Lundqvist as that line had not generated much of anything the first two periods.

In fact, the Stars were looking like a one-line team in trailing 2-1 after two. Mike Ribeiro and Brenden Morrow had teamed to produce the only goal, and they had nine shots on goal between them. Only one forward from another line had a shot on goal.

But the Stars owned the Sharks in the third period, much as they owned Anaheim in the opening round. The Stars have outscored their playoff opponents 16-5 in the third period.

"There's always a little luck involved in that," Modano said. "But we've had great effort all along, and we've got some guys who've been very opportunistic when they've got a little luck."

For Zubov, Sunday's game marked his first action in more than three months. He had not played since Jan. 17 and had sports hernia surgery in Munich less than four weeks ago.

So he didn't carry anything close to his normal load. If healthy, Zubov is always the team leader in minutes played, especially in the postseason. He didn't enter the game until the five-minute mark, and that was to take a short shift on a penalty kill.

He finished with 16:19 of ice time. Nicklas Grossman, Stephane Robidas, Mattias Norstrom and Trevor Daley all got more playing time on the blue line.

The good news for Stars fans is that, barring some sort of injury setback, this is the least the team is likely to get from Zubov the rest of the way.

And a little proved to be a lot Sunday night.