Casey DeSmith worked all 65 minutes in Columbus, and the length of the assignment was almost as important as the 29 saves he made. Dallas lost 2-1 to the Blue Jackets in a shootout, but the tiebreaker offered little guidance about the goalie who had just handled a full game.
The clearer conclusion sat in the schedule: DeSmith looked like a backup who should not have to wait nearly two weeks between starts.
Coach Glen Gulutzan had already raised that concern after DeSmith gave up five goals in an earlier loss to New Jersey following a long layoff. His preference was to bring DeSmith’s starts closer together. Thursday supplied the practical case for it.
DeSmith faced 30 Columbus shots, survived regulation and overtime with one goal against, and gave Dallas a chance to leave with more than one standings point.
That workload came while Miro Heiskanen was out with an upper-body injury, leaving Dallas without its most prominent defenseman. The Stars still held Columbus to 30 shots and kept the game tight, but this was no quiet night behind a flawless defensive wall. DeSmith had to handle a contest in which the margin remained narrow from the opening faceoff through the five-minute overtime.
The other crease made his assignment harder. Columbus’ Cam Talbot took away Lindell’s wrist shot with a spinning glove save in the second period and later denied Robertson’s breakaway. Dallas could not expect to build a large lead against that performance. DeSmith had to keep answering while his teammates searched for their first goal, and Columbus remained scoreless through both opening periods.
Dallas finally found one 6:27 into the third period. Wyatt Johnston took advantage of an Ivan Provorov turnover and put a shot on Talbot, who made the initial stop. Mikko Rantanen then gathered the rebound on the right side of the cage and found room at the near post.
It was Rantanen’s ninth goal, his third straight game with one and his 100th game as a Star. More immediately, it gave DeSmith a one-goal lead rather than any comfortable protection.
The lead lasted until Zach Werenski scored with 3:14 remaining in regulation. The Columbus defenseman’s backhand went over DeSmith’s left pad when the third-period clock reached 16:46, tying the game at 1-1. That was the only goal DeSmith allowed before the shootout.
Dallas had to accept that a 28-shot offense had produced one goal, while Talbot stopped 27 of those 28 attempts. The loss was frustrating, but assigning it to DeSmith would confuse the final result with his portion of the game.
The work continued into overtime, when DeSmith stopped Kent Johnson’s attempt at 3:48. Dallas had three shots in those five minutes and Columbus had one. A fresh decision remained available to either goalie, and neither conceded it. For DeSmith, the useful outcome was another stretch of work completed while the score was level, rather than a quick return to the bench after regulation.
