FRISCO — The Stars that dominated the Wild late during Tuesday’s 6-3 comeback win were not the ones that had played through the first three weeks of the season, but that doesn’t mean it was an abandonment of coach Jim Montgomery’s system.

Dallas looked unbeatable during the last 25 minutes of the game, outshooting the Wild 27-7 after falling behind 3-0, and scoring six unanswered goals. The Stars were fast and aggressive and pounced on any mistakes Minnesota made, a product that was missing as Dallas opened the season 1-7-1 and has since run its record to 5-8-1.

Entering Tuesday, the Stars were last in the league in scoring and were third-worst in the league last season while playing a defensively sound game with above average goaltending.

Even in the opening two periods, there wasn’t much to like outside Alexander Radulov’s diving goal. Montgomery credited assistant coach Todd Nelson for suggesting tweaks in the third period that worked out against Minnesota. Here’s what looked different:

The Stars changed to a more aggressive forecheck that forced poor exits and turnovers by the Wild.

The highest forward in the offensive zone (otherwise known as the F3) maintained good depth, allowing defensemen to pinch down the walls to keep possessions alive.

The changes were first mentioned Monday during the Stars’ team meeting about their poor third periods. At that point, Dallas was outscored in the final frame 19-9 before pounding the Wild 5-0 in the third period on Tuesday.

“The meeting, going back to Monday, we talked about everything,” Stars defenseman John Klingberg said. “We talked about what players can do, what coaches can do, what can we do in the system that can change momentum of the games? This is how that came up, and we tried it out and seems to be working.”

Of course, the adjustments are helped when your best players are winning battles, playing with speed, driving the net and playing to the puck pressure principles preached by Montgomery.

The Stars typically have two forecheckers, but it can look like a 1-2-2 from up top if “we’re not on our toes and we’re not reading” defenseman to defenseman passes, Montgomery said. On Tuesday, a more aggressive forecheck in the third period yielded a look that resembled a 2-1-2 (though Montgomery said the Stars term it differently) where a forward pressures each defenseman.

This is what it looked like in the second period, with Radulov pressuring the puck and trying to cut down the ice by skating between the two defensemen, with Roope Hintz and Joe Pavelski behind him.

Here are a couple examples of the adjustment off neutral-zone faceoffs in the third period.

It helped create puck pressure in Minnesota’s own end, and the Stars won puck battles. From there, Dallas’ skill took over as it scored six goals in the game’s final 21 minutes. In this clip, Pavelski and Denis Gurianov pressure both sides of the ice to win a puck back. And then Hintz (the F3) retreats to the blue line to allow Jamie Oleksiak to pinch down the wall. We’ll get to that in a second.

When a F3 is positioned correctly in the offensive zone, like Hintz was, it opens up so many things for the Stars.

Montgomery touched upon that topic Wednesday after practice, saying that the team was together in the offensive zone against Minnesota, and that leads to creativity and possession time no matter the system played. On Thursday, he expanded on that by singling out the F3.

“But the key thing in everything we do is that our F3 is between our two forwards forechecking and our two d-men that are behind,” Montgomery said. “Because if he’s there, it allows our d-men to go down walls and keep pucks alive, which I think is what you’re trying to describe as a more aggressive approach. Same thing in the neutral zone. If you’re over top speed in the middle of the ice with your F3, you’re always in a good offensive and defensive position. Doesn’t matter what technical structure you’re calling it.”

Active defensemen like Klingberg and Miro Heiskanen (and Oleksiak, too, at times) can jump down the boards on a puck and know that the forward will cover for them at the point. If defensemen do it without support from their forwards, it leads to odd-man rushes the other way.

Here, Hintz covers for both Heiskanen and Taylor Fedun at the points to allow the Stars to keep possession.

Jamie Benn does it here to allow Oleksiak and then Heiskanen to activate, leading to an extended Stars possession and ultimately, a goal.

When F3s are high enough in the offensive zone, they can get between the puck and the neutral zone to disrupt exits and reload, similar to what Mattias Janmark does here.

They can also create enough space for themselves when a turnover is created to make the right decisions offensively. Look how much time and space Jamie Benn has after a Minnesota turnover. Because he was in the right position without the puck, he was able to wait out the Wild and find Tyler Seguin on the backdoor.

“When a turnover happens, you are open in the middle of the ice and you’re striking to the net from a high position, which gives you more time to find an opening getting to the net,” Montgomery said. “The pass might come at the top of the circles, might come at the hashmarks, it might be backdoor. But you get to read that whole thing, it gives you more time.

“It’s like a quarterback. Why does the quarterback go to the shotgun? Gives you more time to see everything. Well, it’s the same thing with our F3. The higher you are, the more you can see the holes.”

Perhaps the Stars found the style they need to play to be successful. Or maybe the concoction of desperation, execution and playing a bad team formulated something that isn’t readily duplicable.

“Can you play to that level every period? No,” Montgomery said. “But you should be able to reach that level more often than not.”

Briefly: Stars defenseman Andrej Sekera will not play Friday in Colorado, is doubtful for Saturday against Montreal and probable for Tuesday against the Avalanche, Montgomery said. Sekera has not skated with the team since crashing awkwardly into the boards Saturday night against Pittsburgh.

Montgomery said forward Blake Comeau would travel because the team needs him to practice during morning skate Friday.

Twitter: @MDeFranks