Stars play spoiler as Sharks’ Thornton reaches 1,500 games

DALLAS — On a night where Joe Thornton reached a major milestone, and Brent Burns recorded his 400th NHL assist, the Dallas Stars found a way to spoil the party by earning a 4-3 win over the Sharks Thursday night.

Thornton, 39, became the 19th player to reach the 1,500 game plateau, a list led by Gordie Howe (1,767), Mark Messier (1,756) and Jaromir Jagr (1733). Among active players, only Patrick Marleau (1,590), Thornton’s teammate for 12 years, has played more.

The Stars took control of the game in the second, breaking a 1-1 tie by capitalizing on a pair of Sharks miscues, scoring two goals just 45 seconds apart. First, Tyler Seguin broke out of a 12-game scoreless drought by picking off a D-to-D pass from Brenden Dillon to Erik Karlsson and converting it into a goal. Then, Gemel Smith buried a tic-tac-goal from Jason Dickinson and Miro Heiskanen after Burns and Melker Karlsson got caught pinching up ice.

After Evander Kane tied it up at 3-3 early in the third by scoring his first goal in 12 games, the Stars regained the lead at 14:13 when Devin Shore scored his second, burying the puck into a gaping net after a blocked shot trickled onto his stick 10 feet from the net.

Timo Meier tied Patrick Kane, Alexander Ovechkin and David Pastrnak for the league lead in goals by scoring his 12th with help from Kevin Labanc and Logan Couture in the first. Burns picked up his 400th-career assist and team-leading 19th point of the season by setting up Joe Pavelski’s seventh goal off a redirection in the second. He recorded a second apple on Evander Kane’s game-tying goal. Thornton earned his 1,032nd career assist on the Sharks second goal.

Martin Jones did his best to keep the Sharks in the game on a night where they gave him little help, making 18 saves on 22 shots.

The Sharks (8-5-3) play Friday night in St. Louis before returning home for a six-game homestand, their longest of the season, which starts next Monday night against Calgary.