Stars vs. Avalanche: Roope Hintz's Fourth-Round Shootout Winner Splits a Wild Home-and-Home

Six periods and an overtime into this home-and-home, Roope Hintz finally broke the tie that mattered. He came in a little slower from the left side, picked his spot and beat Scott Wedgewood with a wrist shot in the fourth round. Casey DeSmith then stoned Brock Nelson, and the Ball Arena crowd filed out wondering how many goals a team has to score to win one of these.

On Wednesday night, the Dallas Stars beat the Colorado Avalanche 3-2 in a shootout, one night after losing 3-2 to the same team in Dallas. Miro Heiskanen and Arttu Hyry scored in regulation, DeSmith made 25 saves for the 100th win of his career, and Colorado had two first-period goals wiped off the board before it scored one that counted.

The Night of the Phantom Goals

The Avalanche thought they opened the scoring twice in the first period. Jaden Schwartz's goal came off after Dallas won an offside challenge. Later in the frame, Gabriel Landeskog's goal was disallowed when officials ruled the captain had used a kicking motion to knock in the puck. Goalie Wedgewood took the glass-half-full view. "One, it's annoying, but two, you found ways to put the puck in the net," he said.

Landeskog finally made one stick at 4:55 of the second. Nazem Kadri let a shot go from the left circle, and Landeskog, uncovered in front, redirected it past DeSmith for a 1-0 lead. According to NHL.com, it was the 90th time Landeskog factored on a game-opening goal, tying Alex Tanguay for ninth most in Avalanche/Nordiques franchise history.

Dallas answered at 15:03. Mikko Rantanen won a battle on the right side and found Heiskanen at the left dot, and Heiskanen picked the top corner on the short side. Hyry said the sequence reset the Stars' approach. "That's kind of just a little push we needed, like just to show us that maybe, hold on to the pucks and not just play to the blue line and rim it," he said.

The third opened with Rantanen in the box for tripping Kadri at 0:21. Colorado's power play lasted 59 seconds before it backfired spectacularly. Hyry picked off Cale Makar at the Dallas blue line, won the footrace with the two-time Norris Trophy winner and went forehand to backhand past Wedgewood's glove at 1:20. Short-handed, unassisted, 2-1 Stars, and his first goal of the season.

Nelson pulled Colorado even at 8:21. Artturi Lehkonen's shot ricocheted off Thomas Harley to Nelson on the left side, and he snapped the bouncing puck past DeSmith's right pad.

The chaos was not done. Also in the third, Gavin Brindley started celebrating what he thought was a goal, but officials never signaled one, and replays showed the puck kissed both posts and stayed out. In overtime, Hyry nearly ended it himself, only to ring a bouncing puck off the post.

The Shootout Swing

Jason Robertson scored first for Dallas, and DeSmith answered by stopping Martin Necas. Wedgewood denied Tyler Seguin in the second round, but Kadri tucked a backhand past DeSmith to even it. Rantanen hit the right post, and DeSmith turned away Nathan MacKinnon. Then Hintz delivered, and DeSmith closed the door on Nelson.

"I just tried to come a little bit slower from the left side and tried to pick my spot and just get a shot there," Hintz said.

Here is the turning point, though: Rantanen's penalty early in the third should have been Colorado's chance to take control of a 1-1 game. Instead, Dallas scored on the penalty kill, and the Avalanche finished 0-for-4 on the power play. Give a team four power plays at home and it should not need a shootout.

DeSmith, Heiskanen and the Hyry Breakthrough

DeSmith stopped 25 of 27 shots in regulation and overtime for a .926 save percentage, then went 3-for-4 in the shootout. Per NHL.com, the milestone win made him the 26th American-born goaltender in NHL history, and the sixth active, to reach 100 regular-season victories. "'Case' was real good," Dallas coach Glen Gulutzan said.

Heiskanen played a monstrous 30:03. His goal was the 70th of his career, moving him past Daryl Sydor for sixth most by a defenseman in Stars franchise history, according to NHL.com.

Hyry's goal carried a little extra feeling. "My dad used to always tell me to do that move, so I guess it was maybe just instinct," he said. "I feel like I've had a lot of chances recently and just haven't been able to score them. So felt nice to finally be able to put one in." Hintz agreed with the assessment: "He deserved that, obviously."

For Colorado, Kadri had two assists plus the shootout goal, and Wedgewood made 20 saves on 22 shots.

Stats That Matter

• 2: Colorado goals erased in the first period, one on an offside challenge and one for a kicking motion.
• 0-for-4: The Avalanche power play, which also coughed up Hyry's short-handed goal. Dallas went 0-for-2.
• 30:03: Heiskanen's ice time, nearly half of a 65-minute game.
• 27-18: Dallas' edge in hits, with a 7-2 advantage in takeaways to match.

What It Means

Dallas improves to 3-3-1 with seven points and 2-1-1 on the road, snapping a two-game skid in which it collected one point. Gulutzan summed up the two-night set with a scorecard. "Actually, probably we won three, they won three. We got two points. They got three points. I think it was pretty even, but it's a big win for us," he said.

Forward Oskar Back suffered an upper-body injury in the first period and did not return, and Gulutzan offered no update.

Colorado falls to 4-2-1 with nine points and is 2-1-1 at home. Coach Jared Bednar loved the first and third periods, and not the second. "I didn't love our habits and discipline, I guess, in the way we want to play in the second period," he said. Forward Nicolas Roy sat out with an upper-body injury and is day to day, per Bednar. Makar returned after missing Tuesday's game and finished plus-1 with two shots in 22:54.

Dallas visits Chicago on Saturday. Colorado hosts Pittsburgh on Friday.

Closing Take

Wedgewood had the best line of the night. "It seems to be kind of like a card game. It just kind of comes down to one play every once in a while," he said. Fair enough. Over two nights, these Central Division rivals traded identical 3-2 scores like a two-part streaming finale, and the cliffhanger came down to Hintz slowing down long enough to find the one spot Wedgewood left open.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details from the Associated Press; postgame quotes and notes as reported by NHL.com.