Jamesville’s Thomas Harley didn’t play many games for the Dallas Stars in the regular season, but he’s making a big impact in the playoffs.
Harley scored his second career goal, and his first-ever postseason goal, in the Stars’ 6-3 win over the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday night. The conference semifinal series is now tied 2-2.
Harley’s goal came on a breakout early in the second period and gave his team a 2-0 lead. Harley fired the puck into the top left corner and over the blocker of Kraken goalie Philipp Grubauer.
“I’d love to say I aimed it, but I just tried to shoot as quick as I could and it went in,” Harley said at his locker after the game.
“It was a breakout and I just skated hard up the ice. You do that, you’re going to get rewarded at some point.”
Harley, a defenseman who will turn 22 this summer, assisted on a goal less than five minutes later. He has four points in four games this series.
Harley played for the Texas Stars of the American Hockey League during the regular season, scoring 34 points (10 goals, 24 assists) in 66 games, and was named an AHL all-star.
He was called up by the Dallas Stars in early April and had two assists in six regular-season games. He also played in all six games in the opening-round playoff series against the Minnesota Wild but didn’t record a point.
Last season, Harley played in 34 NHL games and had one goal and three assists. He was the Stars’ first-round draft pick (18th overall) in the 2019 NHL Draft.
Harley played youth hockey in Syracuse until he was a freshman at Jamesville-DeWitt.