Connor Hellebuyck stopped 17 of Dallas’ 18 shots Tuesday at American Airlines Center, but the number that best explains New Jersey’s 5-1 victory is 20. Dallas generated 38 shot attempts and put 18 on net. The other 20 were either blocked or missed before Hellebuyck had to handle them.
That arithmetic is not a secret shot-quality formula. A puck missing wide is different from one deflected by a defender, and neither event tells us whether the chance was dangerous. It does show an attack that kept ending before New Jersey’s goaltender had to make another decision.
The contrast was stark. New Jersey produced 60 attempts and 27 shots against Casey DeSmith, turning its pressure into five even-strength goals. Dallas scored once. DeSmith’s five goals on 27 shots deserve scrutiny, but blaming the goaltender as the whole explanation would leave the more persistent problem untouched: the Stars did not send enough pucks through to Hellebuyck.
Joel Kiviranta supplied the clearest example of both activity and limitation. He led Dallas with four shots on goal. At 3:29 of the first period, Hellebuyck stopped his first attempt; another at 11:46 also reached the New Jersey netminder.
Kiviranta got two more through in the third, at 7:18 and 11:19, and neither became a goal. Four completed attempts from one forward are useful. Four from one forward are not an offensive plan.
Other Dallas sequences ended earlier. Wyatt Johnston’s attempts at 11:49 and 11:51 of the first period were blocked in quick succession. Mikko Rantanen’s backhand at 15:47 struck the crossbar, while Thomas Harley’s attempt with 45 seconds left in the period was blocked before Harley put another shot on net two seconds later.
Those are different outcomes, and they should not be flattened into one category. Together, they illustrate how often Dallas reached the shooting stage without finishing the play cleanly.
New Jersey also lost attempts to blocks and misses: 33 of its 60 failed to become shots on goal. Yet the Devils still put 27 shots on DeSmith to Dallas’ 18 against Hellebuyck. The difference was the volume completed, not superior New Jersey accuracy.
Nico Hischier opened the scoring 2:41 into the game, then scored again with 19:22 remaining in the second. Jesper Boqvist made it 3-0 at 11:45 of the second. Dallas’ penalty kill went 3-for-3, and all five Devils goals came at even strength, so special teams cannot carry the explanation.
Dallas never received a power play, which removed one possible avenue back into the game, but the five-on-five gap was already doing the damage.
The Stars did find the right answer once. At 16:08 of the second, Tyler Myers’ point shot was redirected by Justin Hryckowian for Dallas’ only goal. Hryckowian finished with one shot and three blocked shots, and the goal was his second in two games. The tip changed the score from 3-0 to 3-1.
That brief exchange is important because it identifies the kind of finish Dallas needed. Hryckowian changed the direction of Myers’ point shot, turning the defenseman’s attempt into Dallas’ only goal. Dallas never added a second goal. One successful redirect cannot cover for 20 attempts that never became shots on goal.
