SAN JOSE, Calif. – There was a moment Saturday when it all could have fallen apart for the Dallas Stars.

After tying the score in the second period, Dallas allowed an easy goal only 45 seconds later and handed the San Jose Sharks a ton of momentum. The Sharks grabbed control with both hands and physically punished the Stars for four or five shifts with relentless forechecking that kept the puck in the Dallas end for long stretches at a time.

It was truly a test, what with the Stars and Sharks battling for supremacy in the Pacific Division and a sellout crowd at HP Pavilion whipped into a frenzy by the turn of events.

But the Stars passed the test, surviving the brief onslaught and then coming back with two power play goals to take control of a game they would eventually win, 4-2.

"That's a character game. We really dug in there," captain Brenden Morrow said. "The harder you work, the better things go for you, and I think we worked really hard to get some breaks. I don't think we ever gave up. We were always ready to compete."

Morrow was a shining example as he played a significant role in two goals and also helped answer the Sharks' physical push. He finished with a goal and an assist. Mike Ribeiro had a goal and an assist, and Sergei Zubov had two assists.

The win pushes the Stars (18-11-4, 40 points) past the Sharks (17-10-4, 38 points) into first place in the Pacific Division. San Jose has played two fewer games and, technically, has a higher winning percentage, but the game allowed Dallas to bounce back from a 3-2 loss on home ice to the Sharks two weeks ago.

"I really give our guys a lot of credit," Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "We played a strong team game. We talk all the time that all of our parts have to be in place for things to go well, and we had a lot of parts in place tonight."

The win means that the road team has won all five games in the season series this year between Dallas and San Jose. In fact, this was the fifth straight win for the Stars in San Jose.

"I can't really explain that," Tippett said.

What he can explain is that the Stars are doing the small things right.

AP

The Dallas Star's Chris Conner (left) collides with San Jose's Matt Carle in the first period.

Goalie Marty Turco bounced back after the Sharks' go-ahead score and didn't allow another goal in the game. The power play cashed in on two key opportunities. And the team defense came up big in the third period when it allowed only six shots on goal.

"They did a good job of denying us opportunities in the third period," Sharks coach Ron Wilson said.

The Sharks did get one golden opportunity on a third-period power play when Joe Thornton was inches away from Turco and had a turnover fall in his lap. Turco was there with a skate save that protected the Stars' 3-2 lead and allowed Steve Ott to exit the penalty box unashamed.

"I had already put my head down, because I thought it was in the net," Ott said.

But that was the beauty of this game. Turco bailed Ott out, and Ott went on to score an empty-netter that sealed the win.

The power play (2-for-6) made the Sharks pay when they got too aggressive, and the penalty kill (4-of-5) bailed out the Stars when they pushed over the line.

"It's a game you can certainly build off of," Tippett said. "What it does is it reinforces all of the things we talk about. I know it gets monotonous to you guys to hear, but we want to be a consistent team that plays hard all of the time, does little things right the majority of the time and finds ways to win.

"And that was a perfect example right there."

The Stars are 5-0 in their last five visits to San Jose. Here's the rundown on Dallas' recent domination in Silicon Valley:

Goals for: 17

Goals against: 7

Penalty kill: 27-of-29

Power play: 4-for-20

Save percentage: .938