Harley has three points, Stars hand Sharks fifth straight loss

DALLAS -- Thomas Harley had a goal and two assists, all on the power play, and the Dallas Stars held on for a 4-3 win against the San Jose Sharks at American Airlines Center on Saturday.

Roope Hintz had a goal and an assist, and Mikko Rantanen and Wyatt Johnston each had two assists for the Stars (10-5-2). Jake Oettinger made 20 saves.

“We’re snapping it around pretty quick. I’m trying to distribute, but also be a shot threat from the point. Try and keep those guys honest,” Harley said. “Most of my job is passing left or passing right, and the other guys make it look good.” 

Macklin Celebrini had three assists for San Jose (7-11-1), which has lost five straight (0-5-0). Will Smith had a goal and an assist for the Sharks and Alex Nedeljkovic made 26 saves.

“I thought we did some good things again, some positives, but unfortunately come up on the losing end again,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “We’re making strides these last two games. Again, we gotta stick to the process and just continue to work and get better, and the results will come.”

Michael Misa put San Jose ahead 1-0 at 7:22 of the first period. Celebrini carried the puck from the blue line down into the low circle and sent a pass across to the far post for Misa, who shot the puck under Oettinger’s left pad.

Hintz scored on the power play at 9:16 during a 4-on-3 Stars advantage. Hintz found the rebound at the left post after Wyatt Johnston’s tip attempt and scored to tie the game 1-1.

“Just goals in a bunch of different ways on the power play,” Johnston said. “Even the ones we didn’t score on, I think we had a lot of good looks. Look to build from that.”

Jamie Benn put Dallas ahead 2-1 at 15:17. Hintz recovered a puck below the goal line and fed it into the slot for Benn, who shot the puck high into the far corner.

“I think Jamie’s playing great hockey,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. “Offensively, he’s making plays and taking pucks down the ice. He’s playing some good hockey for us. That’s why he’s with (Rantanen) and (Johnston), and I thought that line’s been good and effective.”

Jason Robertson scored on the power play at 16:51 after Rantanen fed him a pass from the opposite circle. Robertson snapped a shot over Nedeljkovic’s glove to make it 3-1 Dallas.

“Me and Mikko (Rantanen) talked,” Harley said. “He’s talkative. …he wants to win, and he’s coming from the right place. He’s just competitive.”

Ivar Stenbergcut the Dallas lead to 3-2 with a goal 2:47 into the second period on a 2-on-1 rush with Celebrini.

“I think the attention to detail, the will to work every single shift, I think it’s been there a lot these last two days,” Nedeljkovic said. “I don’t think we can say that, honestly, about the couple of games before that. So it’s a different feeling of frustration. Obviously it sucks losing. I’m not gonna sugarcoat that.”

Harley scored Dallas’ third power-play goal of the game at 14:30. Johnston fed a pass back to the point, and Harley one-timed a shot under Nedeljkovic’s right pad to give Dallas a 4-2 lead.

“(Rantanen) told me I should be a little bit lower in the zone,” Harley said. “Still in the middle, but their forwards play so low that I can come in and creep in and be a shot threat. …I just came over the top and tried to hit it hard.”

Smith pulled San Jose to within 4-3 with a 5-on-3 power-play goal at 17:02 after Mason Marchment found him with a cross-crease pass to the back door that Smith shot into the open net.

“It’s really tough,” Smith said. “Coming off the back to back, playing against a really good team, it definitely hurts. Especially when we have a good effort like that.”

NOTES: Rantanen extended his point streak to five games (seven points; three goals, four assists). … Benn recorded his 999th career point and needs one more to become just the second player to register 1,000 with the franchise after Mike Modano (1,359). … Celebrini played a career-high 28:05.