San Jose, CA (Sports Network) – Patrick Marleau tallied twice and Antti Niemi notched his sixth shutout of the season as San Jose clinched a playoff berth after cruising past Dallas, 6-0, at HP Pavilion.
Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Dan Boyle, Logan Couture and Ben Eager also lit the lamp for the Sharks, who will enter postseason play for the seventh straight season having won six of their last seven contests.
Niemi turned aside 29 shots in the whitewash, improving his record to 32-17-6 as San Jose moved four points ahead of idle Phoenix in the Pacific Division.
Kari Lehtonen yielded four goals on 33 shots in 42-plus minutes for the Stars, losers of five straight and seven of eight. Andrew Raycroft let in two more scores for the remainder of the game.
Dallas remained tied for ninth place in the West with idle Calgary. Both teams are three points behind eighth-place Chicago.