Sharks forward Mike Grier (25) skates around defenceman Stephane Robidas in a 1-0 victory over the Stars on Monday. (LM Otero/Associated Press)

The San Jose Sharks lead the NHL with 91 points, but the two points earned Monday night were among the toughest to obtain.

Devin Setoguchi broke a scoreless deadlock 7:55 into the third period as the San Jose Sharks kicked off a four-game trek with a 1-0 win over the Dallas Stars at the American Airlines Center.

Ryane Clowe received the puck from Christian Ehrhoff at centre ice and passed it to a streaking Setoguchi, who deked rearguard Darryl Sydor at blinding speed before beating netminder Marty Turco with wrist shot off the far post for his 25th goal of the season.

"I saw him [Sydor]," Setoguchi said. "He kind of stopped at the blue-line.

"I had to make a quick move and, once I did, I could get by him. He could see one of my teammates coming and that made him indecisive on the blue-line."

"If I was one inch over to the right and in a perfect square position, I would have had a lot better chance of saving it," Turco said.

The Sharks (41-8-9) have skated to four straight wins after failing to post a victory on their previous road swing (0-1-2).

Neither Joe Thornton (two goals, 10 points) nor Joe Pavelski (two goals, six points) succeeded in extending their point streaks beyond six games.

But Evgeni Nabokov turned aside all 29 shots he faced for his fifth shutout this season and 45th in the NHL.

"Anytime they had a chance to play a rebound, we cleared the puck or blocked the shot," he said. "It felt good, but the puck is really small.

"It can take any bounce. Anything could happen, so you never have the feeling that you're not going to give up a goal."

"He was the first, second and third star in my opinion," Sharks rookie head coach Todd McLellan said of Nabokov .

"He allowed us to escape with the point. I'm happy for Nabby.

"On the last road trip, a lot of pucks went by him and it wasn't his fault. This was really good for him as an individual, and for us as a team."

'It was a tight game'

San Jose is unbeaten in four meetings with Dallas this season, outscoring the Stars 12-4.

"It was a tight game," Nabokov said. "Give them credit.

"They were desperate to win. They played really hard, even though they did not have a lot of their best players on the ice."

Dallas was missing forwards Mike Modano (flu), Brenden Morrow (knee) and Brad Richards (wrist).

Turco finished with 23 saves in his 30th straight start for the Stars (29-23-7), who lost for only the fifth time in their last 15 games.

"We're going to have to play like that to give ourselves a chance to make the playoffs," he said.

"The work ethic was there and we battled hard to the end," Stars defenceman Stephane Robidas said. "If we play like that, more often than not we are going to win games."

Dallas trails the front-running Sharks by 26 points in the Pacific Division, but remains seventh overall in the Western Conference standings.

With files from the Associated Press