The arithmetic looked almost comic: Dallas killed three penalties, allowed no power-play goal and still watched New Jersey score five times in a 5-1 loss Tuesday at American Airlines Center. For the Stars, the penalty kill was the one department that did exactly what it was asked to do. The larger failure unfolded at even strength.
The game offered several tempting distractions. Dallas had no power-play opportunity. Its first-period goalie-interference challenge failed and brought a delay-of-game minor. Casey DeSmith was later called for tripping, and Jamie Benn received an instigator minor, fighting major and misconduct after his second-period altercation with Brenden Dillon. New Jersey received three power plays from those situations and scored on none of them.
Dallas was assessed five penalty infractions, not three; the smaller number represents the Devils’ power-play chances. That accounting leaves no credible case that officiating produced New Jersey’s five goals. There was no Dallas power play to squander, but there was a full game at five-on-five, and New Jersey won it decisively.
Nico Hischier opened the scoring 2:41 into the first period. After moving around Lian Bichsel, Hischier waited out DeSmith and finished from the lower-left portion of the offensive zone. Dallas challenged for interference involving Timo Meier, but the goal stood. The resulting minor sent Matthew Seminoff to the penalty box, where the Stars’ penalty killers prevented the Devils from adding to the lead.
The failed challenge changed the immediate game state, not the eventual diagnosis. New Jersey’s goal came at even strength, and Dallas killed the penalty that followed. The Devils also failed to score during DeSmith’s tripping minor in the second period and during the advantage created by Benn’s penalties.
The penalty kill kept the margin from expanding through special teams. It did not stop New Jersey from creating the margin elsewhere.
The second period supplied the clearest explanation. Hischier scored his second goal with 19:22 left in the period after a setup from Meier, making it 2-0. Jesper Boqvist then finished at 11:45, converting after Jack Hughes created the chance with a no-look pass. Luke Hughes scored at 16:36, only after Dallas had briefly answered, but all three of those second-period goals arrived at even strength.
New Jersey produced 15 shots on goal in that period to Dallas’ four. Across the game, the Devils finished with 27 shots on Casey DeSmith, while Connor Hellebuyck faced only 18 from the Stars and stopped 17. Dallas also trailed 60-38 in shot attempts.
Those numbers do not reveal shot quality by themselves, but they do reveal who spent the night making the other team defend.
The sequence around Boqvist’s goal was especially damaging because it followed a long stretch of New Jersey pressure. Dallas could generate only four shots on goal in the period, while New Jersey kept sending pucks toward DeSmith and forcing the Stars to block, miss or absorb another attack. Twenty of Dallas’ 38 attempts failed to become shots on goal because they were blocked or missed.
That is not a verdict on every attempt, but it helps explain why Hellebuyck’s workload remained modest.