Casey DeSmith’s 26 saves and Thomas Harley’s late second-period winner lift Stars past Wild

Three goals, and the last one held

The game’s story fit neatly into three scoring plays. Radek Faksa opened it for Dallas at 9:18 of the first period, finishing the Stars’ first goal with help from Oskar Bäck and Joel Kiviranta. Minnesota answered quickly in the second, with Joel Eriksson Ek scoring at 1:54 off passes from Blake Coleman and Matt Boldy. For most of the night, that looked like the shape of the contest: narrow, contested, and waiting for one more clean finish.

That finish came from Harley at 18:38 of the second period. Mikko Rantanen and Jamie Benn set up the defenseman for the go-ahead goal, and because the third period passed without another strike, Harley’s wrist shot became the game’s hinge. In a 2-1 result, the decisive sequence does not have to be long. It only has to arrive late enough and leave little room for repair.

Everything around those goals reinforced how small the margin was. Neither team scored on the power play, with Dallas going 0-for-4 and Minnesota 0-for-3, so the game never tilted on special-teams execution. Dallas held a slight edge in the faceoff circle at 52.7 percent, while Minnesota brought the heavier hit total, 25-18, and blocked 16 shots to the Stars’ 13. This was not a night of offensive overflow. It was a night of isolated conversions and long stretches where one mistake or one save carried extra weight.

DeSmith turned shot volume into a Dallas advantage

That is why DeSmith sits at the center of the result. Minnesota put 27 shots on net and got only Eriksson Ek’s early second-period equalizer past him. A .963 save percentage in a one-goal game is not background detail; it is the reason Dallas could survive with just 18 shots of its own. Jesper Wallstedt was hardly shelled at the other end, but the arithmetic was harsher for him. Two goals allowed on 18 shots left Minnesota needing more finish than it could find.

Dallas also received the kind of measured support that matters in games like this. Harley scored the winner and logged 21:56, while Miro Heiskanen led the Stars in ice time at 25:35. Faksa supplied the first goal and won 54.5 percent of his faceoffs. The Stars did enough of the small jobs to keep the scoreline alive: 13 blocked shots, a slim faceoff edge, and just enough finishing from their middle of the game to make DeSmith’s work stand up.

Minnesota had useful individual contributions, but not enough of them converged on the scoreboard. Eriksson Ek cashed in the Wild’s only goal, Boldy added an assist, and Maxim Shabanov led the club with four shots. The Wild’s effort level is visible in the hit and block totals, and Wallstedt still kept the gap at one. But the offensive return never matched the volume. Twenty-seven shots and one goal is the kind of line that keeps a team chasing the game even when most of the other totals look competitive.

Our take: efficient for Dallas, frustrating for Minnesota

Our take: Dallas will gladly take the result, but the Stars should not confuse a successful night with a complete one. They won while generating only 18 shots, going scoreless on four power plays, and committing 19 giveaways. That is a thin margin for repeat business. The encouraging side is that they offset some of that looseness by winning faceoffs, blocking shots, and getting elite goaltending. If there is one obvious place to tighten, it is puck management; 19 giveaways in a 2-1 game leaves too much to a goalie, even when that goalie is this sharp.

For Minnesota, the frustration is easier to locate. The Wild outshot Dallas 27-18, outhit the Stars 25-18, blocked more shots, and still came away with one goal. That points first to finishing, but not only to finishing. The Wild also went 0-for-3 on the power play, lost the faceoff battle, and were charged with 22 giveaways. Those are the kinds of extra lost touches that can make a one-goal deficit feel steeper than it looks. Better puck security and a cleaner power play would be the most reasonable starting points, because the chance volume alone did not solve the problem here.

This result reads as a lesson in what matters most when the numbers are close but not symmetrical. Minnesota produced more attempts and more contact. Dallas produced the game’s best goaltending line and the last goal on the board. In the NHL, that is often enough. On this night, it was exactly enough.

Scoring moments

1. 1st · 9:18

   Radek Faksa Goal (1) Wrist Shot, assists: Oskar Bäck (1), Joel Kiviranta (1)

2. 2nd · 1:54

   Joel Eriksson Ek Goal (1) Wrist Shot, assists: Blake Coleman (1), Matt Boldy (1)

3. 2nd · 18:38

   Thomas Harley Goal (2) Wrist Shot, assists: Mikko Rantanen (2), Jamie Benn (1)