Last night’s magic number was two.

The Dallas Stars scored two unanswered goals to forceovertime and a 3-2 shootout victory against the SanJose Sharks last Tuesday night.

The tying goal, courtesy of Philippe Boucher, came inwith :02 seconds remaining in the game and allowedthe Stars to walk away with two points.

After a National Hockey League record 49 games without going into overtime, the Sharks were forced to get into a shootout situation against a team that has haunted them in the past year. The Sharks’ last shootout was against theStars on March 16, 2006.

“I don’t even remember the last shootout,” said Sharkshead coach Ron Wilson. “It’s all irrelevant.”

The shootout, however, wasn’t Wilson’s biggest problem.His team got a little too comfortable with atwo-goal lead into the third period.

“Our bigger guys have to step up,” said Wilson. “Youshouldn’t be looking to Marc [Edouard] Vlasic to bethe leader on the team or [Joe] Pavelski or RyanClowe.”

In the third period, the Stars outshot the Sharks14-4 with goals coming from Mike Ribeiro and Boucher.

The trouble started before the third period, though.

The league-leading power play unit failed to converton seven opportunities, one of them a two-manadvantage.

“Our power play hasn’t been good the past couple ofgames,” said Pavelski.

Pavelski knocked in his 11th of the season on awraparound attempt on Stars’ goaltender Marty Turcoearly in the first period.

“The people going out on the power play are way toocasual and they think it’s going to automaticallyclick,” said Wilson. “It becomes a carryover to therest of your game.”

The Sharks will have another shot to redeem themselveswhen they host the Stars again on Thursday at 7:30p.m.