Dallas Stars Made Their Lead Early, Then Had to Defend It

The Dallas Stars had already done their scoring by the time Friday’s preseason game became a test of patience. Radek Faksa struck in the first period, Thomas Harley restored the lead late in the second, and the rest of the night belonged to the uncomfortable arithmetic of protecting a one-goal advantage.

Dallas held on for a 2-1 victory over Minnesota at Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul, with the Wild directing 13 shots at Casey DeSmith in the third period. The Stars managed only two.

That imbalance does not, by itself, explain why the game tightened, but it does underline the stakes of the finish: every Minnesota attack carried more weight because Dallas had stopped adding to the scoreboard.

A fast start, then a pause

The opening period moved briskly enough. Faksa put Dallas ahead at 9:18, converting an even-strength chance assisted by Oskar Bäck and Joel Kiviranta. The goal was Faksa’s only shot of the game, a small example of how quickly a low-volume night can look productive when the puck finds the net.

The teams finished the first period even at seven shots apiece. Dallas’ penalty kill handled both first-period shorthanded situations without allowing a goal. DeSmith finished the period having stopped all seven shots he faced. The Stars’ advantage was real and useful, though hardly comfortable.

Then came the pause in the middle frame. Eriksson Ek tied the game at 1:54, assisted by Blake Coleman and Matt Boldy. The goal arrived early enough to erase Dallas’ first-period work almost immediately, and the second period settled into a more balanced exchange. After Minnesota’s equalizer, the teams traded chances and reached 12 shots apiece before Dallas edged ahead in the period’s closing stretch.

Harley’s goal at 18:38 changed the assignment again. Mikko Rantanen and Jamie Benn assisted on the even-strength winner, which came 12 seconds after Yakov Trenin’s penalty expired. That timing matters: Dallas did not score on the power play. It simply regained the lead just before intermission and handed Minnesota 20 minutes to chase it.

The long third

The final period was slower in the way close hockey games become slow: not necessarily in pace, but in consequence. Minnesota’s shots kept accumulating. A holding penalty to Nils Lundkvist at 2:58 added another complication, although Dallas killed it. The Wild continued to test DeSmith, and he stopped all 13 third-period shots on his way to 26 saves overall.

Dallas still had chances to make the ending less delicate. Harley and Wyatt Johnston recorded shots at 11:47 and 11:50, briefly interrupting Minnesota’s pressure. Those attempts did not produce insurance, however, and the game returned to its basic question: could one goal survive the final eight minutes?

It did, partly because Dallas received timely defensive work without pretending the third period was tidy. At 17:47, with Minnesota using six skaters and its net empty, Esa Lindell blocked a Kaprizov shot. That was a pivotal intervention because it came after DeSmith’s last recorded save, a Boldy attempt at 17:22. No Minnesota shot on goal followed.

The final seconds became needlessly crowded. Harley and Boldy received fighting majors and misconducts at 18:44, leaving Dallas with 1:16 to navigate. Justin Hryckowian then took a roughing minor at 19:08, alongside a collection of fighting penalties that produced game misconducts for Hryckowian and Minnesota’s Michael McCarron. The penalty parade did not change the score, but it made an already narrow finish look even narrower.

That is the fair reading of this preseason win for Dallas: the Stars were efficient early, then forced to live with the margin they had built. Faksa’s first-period finish and Harley’s late second-period goal made the 13-shot Minnesota third survivable. They did not make it serene.

In September exhibition hockey, a 2-1 result is less a proclamation than a win whose value depended on the goaltender and defenders preserving what the two scorers had provided.

Sources

Official game data

Official game data

Official game data

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