David Perron put Dallas back in front at 11:14 of the second period, and the Stars had another chance to make the game theirs. The score was 3-2. Winnipeg had erased an early two-goal deficit, but Dallas had answered with a lead of its own.
The response lasted less than three minutes. Dawson Mercer tied the game at 13:55, and the Jets went on to score six consecutive goals in an 8-3 victory Thursday at American Airlines Center. The collapse began before the second intermission, which makes Dallas’ inability to preserve regained control more troubling than the poor finish alone.
This was not simply a bad opening that snowballed. Dallas led 2-0 after the first period, then recovered from Winnipeg’s comeback to move ahead again. Twice, the Stars reached a point where one composed stretch could have steadied the night. Twice, the game ran away from them.
The first period offered a fairly persuasive template. Arttu Hyry scored at 4:19, and Roope Hintz made it 2-0 at 18:32. Those goals came at even strength, as did all three Dallas goals, and the Stars entered the break with a lead that should have forced Winnipeg to chase rather than dictate.
Instead, Dylan Samberg scored at 1:11 of the second period and Mark Scheifele followed at 7:03 to level the game. Dallas did answer. Perron’s deflected goal restored the advantage, while his six shots matched Tyler Seguin’s team-high total and gave the attack a needed contribution in a period that had begun to swing away from them.
The important sequence came afterward. Mercer’s tying goal at 13:55 removed Dallas’ second lead. Jamie Benn was called for slashing at 16:54, and Scheifele converted Winnipeg’s power play at 18:12 for the Jets’ first lead. Mercer scored again at 19:51, leaving Winnipeg ahead 5-3 with nine seconds left in the period.
The penalty helped Winnipeg, but it does not explain the whole collapse. Dallas went 0-for-2 with the man advantage, while the Jets finished 1-for-3. Yet Winnipeg scored seven times at even strength.
The larger failure was what followed each Dallas success: the Stars did not turn a lead into a quieter game, a tying goal into a reset or a fresh advantage into a stable one.
The clock barely had time to settle in the third before Kyle Connor scored at 1:00, pushing Winnipeg’s margin to 6-3. Vilardi’s goal came with 15:12 elapsed, followed 14 seconds later by Koepke’s. By then, the final score had become lopsided, but the crucial damage had already arrived during the closing minutes of the second period.
Dallas did enough offensively to prevent a simple explanation. The Stars produced 33 shots to Winnipeg’s 30, scored three times at even strength and received goals from Hyry, Hintz and Perron. Stuart Skinner stopped 30 of those attempts. Shot totals cannot preserve a lead, though, and they do not erase the fact that Winnipeg scored five times in the second period.
