On a night that saw their top prospect shine, the Stars came up short in overtime.

With just three home games in the last 30 days, the Stars haven't seen much of American Airlines Center this month. They returned home Monday to face a struggling New York Islanders team on the outside looking in for a playoff spot.

Monday was also forward Logan Stankoven's 21st birthday, so it was a perfect setting for the Stars to pick up a win and celebrate their top prospect's special moment at the same time.

Alas, it was the Islanders who were celebrating at the end after handing Dallas a 3-2 loss in overtime. Bo Horvat scored the game-winner, the exact same scenario that played out in the two teams' first meeting January 21 in New York. Horvat was the hero on that occasion as the Isles prevailed by the same 3-2 score in overtime.

Stankoven almost brought the American Airlines Center crowd to their feet midway through the first period. After a shot by Jamie Benn, Stankoven got the rebound and sent a rocket that Islanders goalie Ilya Sirokin stopped.

New York played like a team desperate to find their footing after going 4-5-3 since new coach Patrick Roy took over. They kept Stars goalie Scott Wedgewood busy in the first several minutes of the game. Their best scoring chance came on a Mathew Barzal breakaway, but Wedgewood was up to the task, making a glove save.

Ryan Pulock got the Islanders on the board first at the 15:59 mark on a 35-foot wrister from the high slot, his fourth goal of the season. It was the first time since February 8 the Islanders had scored first in a game.

With seven seconds left in the first period, Miro Heiskanen got called for holding the Islanders' Anders Lee, who was attempting a breakaway. New York went into the first intermission with 1:53 left on the power play and a 1-0 lead.

Dallas put themselves in a deeper hole 1:23 into the second frame when Thomas Harley flipped the puck over the glass, drawing a delay-of-game penalty and putting the Islanders in a 5-3 man advantage. Heiskanen was still serving his holding penalty, but the Stars managed to avoid disaster by killing off both successfully.

Stankoven drew an interference penalty after he, Benn and Wyatt Johnston each missed on opportunities to score.

Dallas made the Islanders pay when Matt Duchene had a Harley shot go right to him, and he banged it past Sirokin at the 7:11 mark for his 23rd goal of the season and the 800th point of his storied career.

Harley got the assist and Stankoven was credited with a secondary assist, giving him the first point of his NHL career and working the 18,000-plus American Airlines Center crowd into a frenzy. It would be a sign of better things to come.

The two teams went back and forth the rest of the period. Wedgewood had two beautiful stops on Anders Lee and Kyle Palmieri, but Kyle MacLean finally broke through at 15:24 on the next sequence, slapping a shot through Wedgewood after Pierre Engvall got a rebound and dropped it into the slot.

Stankoven finally gave the Dallas faithful what they had been hoping for at 18:17, rifling a wrister from the left circle, beating Sirokin on the short side to pull the Stars even 2-2.

It was a proud moment not only for Stankoven, but his parents and sister, who were in attendance just as they were in his debut in Carolina on Saturday.

 He became the second player in Dallas Stars history to score his first NHL goal on his birthday. Raymond Sawada did it first on February 19, 2009 against Edmonton.

It looked as if Stankoven's goal might invigorate the Stars as the third period began. Dallas buzzed around the Islanders zone with numerous scoring chances, outshooting them 6-2 over the first half of the frame.

With 6:33 remaining, Sam Steel was assessed a holding penalty, putting the Islanders on a critical power play. The Stars came close twice to scoring after Ty Dellandrea hit the post and Radek Faksa was denied by Sirokin. Wedgewood returned the favor with a potential game-saving stop on Barzal.

While they didn't get the shorthanded goal they were looking for, the Stars successfully killed the penalty. The teams remained even at 2-2 and heading into overtime for the second time in two meetings this season.

Unfortunately for the Stars, that second meeting played out the same way as the first. Barzal found Bo Horvat, who shot a one-timer in the slot past Wedgewood 2:54 into the extra period for a 3-2 Islanders triumph. It was Horvat's 23rd goal of the season and his second goal-winner against Wedgewood and the Stars, both coming in overtime.

The loss was gut-wrenching on a night full of excitement over Stankoven playing in front of the home crowd for the first time. The kid didn't disappoint, getting two points and his first of hopefully many goals in his career.

"It's nice to get that first goal, would have been nicer to cap it off with a win," Stankoven told reporters following the game. "Everything besides winning was super cool, and (I'm) really grateful. The crowd was great, and the fans treated me really well."

New York outshot the Stars 32-28, attempted 70 shots to Dallas' 61 and won the battle in quality scoring chances 30-28.

The first period has been a problem for the Stars of late. They've scored 57 goals in first-period play, compared to 76 in the second and 75 in the third, a trend coach Pete DeBoer knows has to change as the postseason draws near.

"I didn't like our first period at all," DeBoer said during his postgame presser. "I thought we worked ourselves into the game. Had enough chances to win it in the third... had a breakaway, hit a crossbar. We worked hard enough, I thought, to either score or at least draw a penalty or two down the stretch that we didn't get."

The Stars pick up a point to move their record to 35-16-9 for 79 points. They remain in first place in the Central Division by two points over the Winnipeg Jets and Colorado Avalanche by four.

The Stars will play both teams this week, traveling to Denver to face the Avalanche Tuesday before coming back home Thursday for a showdown with Winnipeg.

"No time to feel sorry for ourselves," Duchene said after the game. "It's a huge week for us, and we've got a big one against Colorado (Tuesday)."

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