Hintz Scores Twice, Dallas Survives Winnipeg's Second-Period Surge

Roope Hintz scored both the tying goal with two seconds left in regulation and the overtime winner to lift Dallas past Winnipeg 3-2 on October 23. Stuart Skinner was outstanding in a losing effort, stopping 35 of 38 shots, but Dallas's top line had too many answers.

The first period was scoreless, and Dallas wasted no time making it count in the second — Wyatt Johnston snapped one past Skinner just 1:17 into the middle frame, assisted by Mikko Rantanen and Jason Robertson, to put the Stars on the board first. That goal, which shifted the score margin from even to 1-0 Dallas, looks like the hinge the whole game swung on. Winnipeg, though, refused to fold. Gabriel Vilardi tied it at 10:50 of the second on a snap shot, and then Kyle Connor — already sitting at nine goals on the season — ripped a slap shot past Jake Oettinger at 12:38 to give the Jets a 2-1 lead. For a stretch there, Winnipeg appeared to be in full control.

Then came the third period, and Hintz. With the clock reading 18:00 — two seconds from the final horn — Hintz buried a snap shot off feeds from Rantanen and Johnston to knot it at two and force overtime. It was the kind of goal that reframes an entire night. Oettinger finished with 17 saves on 19 shots; the Jets simply didn't generate enough volume to put it away, and that late lapse in coverage proved fatal.

Overtime belonged entirely to Dallas. Hintz completed his two-goal night at 3:47 of the fourth period, converting another snap shot — this time set up by Miro Heiskanen and Jason Robertson — to end it 3-2. Rantanen finished with two assists, Robertson with two assists, and Johnston with a goal and an assist; the story of the night was that Dallas's top players showed up when the margin for error disappeared. Winnipeg's Skinner was genuinely excellent — 35 saves is a performance that deserved a better fate — but the Jets managed only 19 shots total, and against a team with Dallas's offensive firepower, that's a thin margin to work with. Hintz now has five goals on the season, and this looks like a Dallas group that knows how to manufacture wins even when the game isn't going their way.