Harley gave the Stars just enough before intermission

Thomas Harley scored with 1:22 left in the second period, which is a particularly useful time to put a goal on the board when the rest of the evening may soon become a defensive exercise. His wrist shot at 18:38 gave the Dallas Stars a 2-1 lead over Minnesota, and that slim advantage held through a third period in which the Wild outshot Dallas 13-2.

Dallas won Friday’s preseason game in St. Paul without making its final 20 minutes comfortable. Minnesota finished with a 27-18 shot advantage and produced 13 of those shots in the final period, while Dallas managed only two.

Harley nevertheless made the game’s decisive offensive contribution. He finished with three shots, one blocked shot and 21:56 of ice time, a substantial workload for a defenseman in an exhibition game. The goal came at even strength with assists from Mikko Rantanen and Jamie Benn.

The timing mattered beyond the scoreboard. Minnesota had tied the game at 1-1 on Joel Eriksson Ek’s goal at 1:54 of the second, erasing Radek Faksa’s first-period opener. The Wild’s high-sticking minor against Yakov Trenin expired at 18:26, 12 seconds before Harley scored, leaving Dallas empty-handed on that advantage.

The Stars finished 0-for-4 on the power play. The Stars’ special teams did not provide the attacking cushion; Harley’s finish did.

Dallas’ offensive margin was thinner than the names on its lineup might suggest. Rantanen, Jason Robertson and Tyler Seguin combined for one shot on goal, although Rantanen’s assist gave him a direct hand in the winning play. The Stars’ first goal came from Faksa, assisted by Oskar Bäck and Joel Kiviranta, three players who each played fewer than 12 minutes.

That spread-out production is useful in preseason, but it also explains why a two-goal total was hardly surprising.

Minnesota’s pressure became more apparent as the game moved along. Casey DeSmith stopped 26 of 27 shots, including all three Minnesota power-play shots, and turned the third period into a test of whether Dallas could keep the Wild from turning its shots into an equalizer. The Stars did not generate much attacking relief.

Their two third-period shots came from Harley and Wyatt Johnston, while Minnesota kept sending attempts toward DeSmith.

One late defensive sequence showed how narrow the margin had become. With Minnesota using six skaters and its net empty, Esa Lindell blocked Kirill Kaprizov’s shot at 17:47. That play prevented a tying chance from reaching DeSmith, but it belongs in a larger account of the finish: the goaltender stopped all 13 third-period shots, and Dallas also needed a timely block in front of him.

Harley then made the closing minutes unnecessarily complicated. At 18:44, he received a fighting major and misconduct, leaving Dallas without him for the final 76 seconds. Jamie Benn and Justin Hryckowian later took fighting majors, and Hryckowian also received a roughing minor at 19:08.

Those penalties did not create the victory. They did, however, add risk to a game already tilted toward Minnesota and forced Dallas to manage the final stretch with less margin for error.

The Wild recorded no shot on goal after Matt Boldy’s attempt at 17:22, even with the late manpower complications. That is a credit to Dallas’ penalty killing and defensive resistance, though it does not turn the third period into a Stars clinic. That late resistance preserved a result the shot totals had done little to reassure Dallas about.

That is the clearest reading of Harley’s night. His three shots and heavy ice time gave Dallas a needed offensive push, while his late penalties briefly threatened to overshadow the goal. They should not. The decisive fact is simpler: Harley scored just before intermission, DeSmith protected the advantage, and the Stars preserved a lead their overall play had not made comfortable.

Sources

Official game data

Official game data

Official game data

Source report