Late Blunder Costs Stars in 5-3 Loss to Pittsburgh

Thomas Harley has played hero in plenty of games this season, the young standout defenseman's error led to a late go-ahead goal for the Pittsburgh Penguins in a 5-3 win over the Dallas Stars.

Harley ran into teammate Cody Ceci just inside the Stars defensive blue line that caused a 2-on-1 to lead to the tie-breaking goal from Blake Lizotte with 1:53 left in the third period. It was a mistake that head coach Pete DeBoer wasn't too concerned with. DeBoer said things like that will happen from time to time with any player that is tasked with as much responsibility as Harley is.

Saturday afternoon's contest against the Penguins ends the Dallas Stars short homestand as the team heads straightaway for Minnesota for the second half of their back-to-back. After that, there is only one home stand remaining in the regular season.

In Thursday's 5-1 win against the Nashville Predators, the Stars had a very slow start despite being handed a four-minute power-play less than two minutes into the game, but they showed up in the third period, scoring four goals in the final frame.

Tonight's game started in similar fashion when Kris Letang took an egregious hooking penalty in the opening minute. However, the Stars failed to convert on the man advantage. As the penalty ended, the Stars were still applying pressure in the offensive zone when Mason Marchment, who was frustrated about not drawing a call after a collision, reached out and trips Kris Letang.

Unlike the Stars, the Penguins would convert on a sneaky play by Sidney Crosby who caught a missed pass intended for Rutger McGroarty to put Pittsburgh up 1-0.

Five minutes later, the Stars tied things up 1-1 when Lian Bichsel won a battle at the boards and moved the puck up. Evgenii Dadonov turned on the jets past Erik Karlsson and made a slick move in front of Tristan Jarry to put it home. 

The second period was summed up the same as the first for Dallas: Casey DeSmith playing well and Dadonov scoring. The Penguins put up 11 shots on goal to the Stars five for the entire 20 minutes. DeSmith was locked in, even after Roope Hintz flew by the crease trying to get to the puck and hit DeSmith directly in the head and neck area. DeSmith, in obvious distress, stayed in the game despite making two trips to the bench. After running into the DeSmith, Hintz also took a tripping penalty, so DeSmith was forced to power through while down a man. 

The Penguins did not convert but the Stars would get their chance to take another stab at the power play. The first unit was unable to find their groove, so the second unit got their chance. Matt Duchene got the puck in the corner and threaded the needle straight to Dadonov who shot the puck so fast that Jarry had no chance.

Up 2-1 going into the third, it felt like Dallas would once again close out a lead, which had happened over 20 times in a row when leading after two periods. But Crosby had other plans as he found an open spot in front of the net for a quick shot that beat DeSmith to tie the game almost immediately into the third.

Dallas would regain the lead later in the period on a dribbler past Jarry from the stick of - who else - Dadonov, who completed the hat trick for his 19th goal of the season. One more goal would make him the eighth 20-goal scorer for the Stars this season.

Shortly after, Ilya Lyubushkin slipped and fell in the corner, allowing Bryan Rust to get a pass all alone in front of DeSmith, and Rust waited him out with a deke and tucked it in for a tie hockey game once more.

Then, with Harley's miscommunication with Ceci, the Penguins had a shock lead with little time before Dallas had to enter an empty net situation. Crosby found the back of the empty net from across the ice, completing his own hat trick and scoring his fourth point of the game to seal a 5-3 win for visiting Pittsburgh.

DeBoer said he would have a quick conversation with Harley, who was visibly upset after the game, to reset him before such a quick turnaround against Minnesota less than 24 hours later.

The game against the Wild is one between two playoff teams that could potentially meet in the first round, depending on what Winnipeg and St. Louis do on the periphery down the stretch. Currently, Dallas is still chasing the Jets for first place in the Central Division, which would seemingly be the only scenario to avoid a collision course with the Colorado Avalanche in the first round.

Puck drop in Minnesota is at 2 p.m. Sunday.