Miro Heiskanen did not score Thursday. He did put Roope Hintz in position to end the game, which was an adequate substitute.
After Jason Robertson blocked Winnipeg’s overtime scoring chance, Heiskanen sent Hintz away on a breakaway. Hintz finished at 3:47 of the extra period, giving Dallas a 3-2 win at American Airlines Center. The winning pass turned a defensive recovery into an attacking opportunity before either side had much time to admire the change.
Heiskanen’s assist was particularly useful after the workload that preceded it. With Esa Lindell scratched, Heiskanen logged 29:20 and Thomas Harley played 28:27. The next Dallas defender in ice time was Lian Bichsel at 17:47. Nils Lundkvist, Tyler Myers and Kyle Capobianco also played, but the largest portions of the evening fell to the two leaders.
Those totals do not reveal every matchup or establish a permanent pair. They do show how much work Dallas assigned its defensemen. Heiskanen still had an important pass to make near the end of that work, after the Stars had spent most of regulation looking for sufficient reward from an otherwise productive shot count.
The outlet is a good example of the offensive value a defenseman can supply without adding a goal. A recovery has limited benefit if the next touch merely gives the opponent another opportunity. Moving the puck into a breakaway changes the purpose of the possession immediately. Heiskanen supplied that change; Hintz supplied the conclusion.
Robertson’s contribution remains essential to the sequence. Heika reported that Robertson’s turnover created the Winnipeg chance before his block interrupted it. This was a shared recovery, not an immaculate solo construction by Heiskanen. Crediting the pass does not require treating everything before it as either planned or flawless.
Dallas was not flawless elsewhere, either. Johnston opened the scoring early in the second period, but Gabriel Vilardi and Kyle Connor answered later in that period to put Winnipeg ahead. The Stars had to wait until Hintz’s six-on-five equalizer with two minutes left in regulation before they were level again.
It would have been a waste of a substantial shot advantage to leave the game there. Dallas finished with 38 shots on goal to Winnipeg’s 19. Skinner’s 35 saves made the Stars work for the conversion of that advantage. The defense could help limit Winnipeg’s opportunities; it could not make every Dallas attempt go in at the other end.
Heiskanen contributed five shots himself, along with one block and the winning assist. His involvement was broader than the pass that will receive the most attention. Harley did not score, and neither defender needed a goal to make the distribution of minutes consequential. Their work occupied a large part of a game Dallas eventually won by a single finish.
The remaining question is how Dallas distributes that work from here. Lindell’s absence was a Thursday fact; a return date or a revised rotation is not established by this game. It would be premature to call the arrangement either an enduring solution or an inevitable source of fatigue. The immediate achievement was completing the assignment in front of them.
