Harley, Stars rally for OT victory against Ducks

DALLAS -- Thomas Harley scored 38 seconds into overtime to give the Dallas Stars a 4-3 win against the Anaheim Ducks at American Airlines Center on Thursday.

Harley scored after taking the puck off a face-off win in the defensive zone and skating it the length of the ice, beating Anaheim goalie John Gibson with a shot from the outside of the left face-off circle. He also had an assist.

“Everyone loves scoring goals, everyone loves winning,” Harley said. “Definitely nice when I get it. I like that a little bit more. It’s another two points in the bank.”

Miro Heiskanen scored in his return from injury, and Matt Duchene and Craig Smith also scored for the Stars (29-13-6), who have won two in a row and five of their past seven. Jake Oettinger made 18 saves.

Heiskanen tied it 3-3 midway through the third period after missing the previous 10 games with a lower-body injury sustained in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Jan. 4.

“It might take him a little bit here,” Duchene said of Heiskanen’s return. “Hopefully he can feel better and better. I thought he looked great. The whole thing is, for however many weeks you’re out, it’s one game or game-per-week type thing. That’s what a wise, older guy told me when I was younger, and I always felt that to be true when I was coming back from injury.

“Obviously, a huge goal. That goal does a lot for confidence. For me, he’s one of the best [defensemen] in the League. It’s tough to find guys much better out there than that if there is any. He’s a welcome guy back in our lineup.”

Jakob Silfverberg had a goal and an assist, Urho Vaakanainen scored his first NHL goal and Gibson made 40 saves for the Ducks (16-30-2), who have lost four of five. Isac Lundestrom had two assists.

“We’ve been spoiled all year, maybe all the 11 years I’ve been here, we’ve had great goaltending,” Silfverberg said. “It was no different tonight. [Gibson] was obviously terrific there. He made some really big saves and kept us in the game. I think they probably out-chanced us, but he made some key saves at key times and managed to hang us in there.”

Duchene gave Dallas a 1-0 lead at 2:22 of the first period, scoring on a shot from the left face-off dot after Tyler Seguin forced a turnover in the high slot.

Vaakanainen tied it 1-1 at 15:10 off a sharp-angle shot from the goal line that deflected in off of Oettinger’s skate. It was his first goal in 108 NHL games.

Troy Terry put Anaheim ahead 2-1 at 1:28 of the second period on a shot from the slot.

Smith tied it 2-2 at 6:44 when it was determined his shot completely crossed the goal line following a video review.

“One of the things they did really well was they shot pucks from distance to the net, and they funneled bodies there,” Ducks coach Greg Cronin said. “They’re a big team and they skate well, so when they do throw pucks down and have bodies driving the net, it’s hard to defend. They got a lot of secondary shots off of rebounds.”

Silfverberg gave Anaheim a 3-2 lead 12 seconds into the third period when Lundestrom found him in the slot from behind the net.

“We were playing a really good team tonight, they’re a contender. We’re maybe not controlling the game, but we’re staying in it by having good goaltending, and at the end of the night, it’s one shot that’s the difference,” Silfverberg said. “We get one point, get great goaltending, and build off the second half of the game going forward.”

Heiskanen tied it 3-3 at 10:31 on a shot from one knee at the top of the right circle.

“There’s a real good composure to our group,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “There’s never a panic on the bench if we’re down in a game. I think there’s an underlying confidence in our group that we are going to score at some point and get back in it.”

NOTES: With an assist on Duchene’s goal, Seguin moved into 5th all-time in points in Dallas/Minnesota North Stars franchise history (652), behind Brian Bellows (722), Neal Broten (867), Jamie Benn (875), and Mike Modano (1,359). … Silfverberg recorded his 200th NHL assist. … Ducks defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin did not play and is day to day with an upper-body injury.