Before Roope Hintz supplied Dallas’ last two goals, Stuart Skinner kept one of his earlier attempts out. Late in the second period, the Winnipeg goalie reached back to smother a rolling puck before it crossed the line.
Hintz eventually tied the game with two minutes left in regulation and won it at 3:47 of overtime. Dallas beat the Jets 3-2 at American Airlines Center on Thursday. The ending belongs to the Stars, but it should not evict Skinner’s earlier work from the account.
The save against Hintz is described in the Associated Press report. It gives a particular example of what can disappear when a winning finish becomes the only replay anyone wants to discuss. Dallas had a player in position to threaten the net. Winnipeg had a goalie who kept the threat from becoming the equalizer. The later goals did not make that earlier response less effective.
Skinner finished with 35 saves on 38 shots. He stopped all twelve in the first period, thirteen of fourteen in the second and ten of eleven in the third. Dallas’ lone overtime shot was the winner. The workload was substantial before the last attempt settled the result.
There is a distinction between losing a game and playing poorly enough to explain the defeat. Skinner did the former. Thirty-five saves, including that earlier stop against the eventual winning scorer, make the latter a much harder case. A goalie can give his team an opportunity to win without being able to guarantee the finish.
Winnipeg had such an opportunity deep into regulation. Vilardi and Connor scored in the second period after Johnston had put Dallas ahead, leaving the Jets with a 2-1 lead. They carried it until Hintz’s equalizer at 18:00 of the third. Skinner’s saves had helped make a smaller supply of offense sufficient for a very long time.
The comparison at the other end was stark. Winnipeg produced nineteen shots, while Dallas produced thirty-eight. Oettinger stopped seventeen for the Stars. Neither goalie’s task can be described completely by the count, but the difference explains why Skinner’s contribution occupied so much of the evening. He had far more attempts to answer before the next goal could become decisive.
Dallas deserves credit for completing the late attacks rather than a promise that enough shooting must eventually be rewarded. Johnston scored the opening goal, then Hintz supplied the tying finish and the overtime breakaway. The Stars had to beat the goalie on those plays. The earlier save makes that achievement more substantial, not less.
It is easy to tell the opposing side’s story as a collapse once a late lead disappears. That would be a poor fit for Skinner’s night. He was named the game’s third star in the official summary, behind Hintz and Johnston. The designation reflects a contest in which Dallas’ finishers and the Winnipeg goalie all had consequential work to claim.
The outcome also should not become a sweeping forecast about either side. Dallas has won four straight and stands at 6-3-1. Winnipeg is 4-3-3. Those records establish where the teams are after this game, not whether their next close finish will follow the same sequence.