Dallas won the special-teams score 1-0 on Thursday: the Stars converted one of three power plays, while their penalty kill erased all four Montreal opportunities. They still lost 5-2 to the Canadiens at American Airlines Center because the game was decided between those whistles, where Montreal scored four times at even strength and Dallas managed once.
Phillip Danault’s empty-net goal with 48 seconds left widened a margin already built at even strength. Dallas had protected itself through eight minutes of Montreal power-play time. Its more costly defensive failures came when nobody was serving a penalty.
The night’s sharpest sequence lasted 27 seconds. Wyatt Johnston had tied the game 1-1 at 12:53 of the first period on Dallas’ first power play, with assists from Mikko Rantanen and Miro Heiskanen. The game had been level for just over three minutes when Alex Newhook scored at 16:05.
Cole Caufield followed at 16:32. Both goals came at even strength, and the Canadiens had turned a tie into a 3-1 lead before Dallas could answer.
That burst mattered more than the final empty-netter because it changed the work required from Dallas. The Stars had needed one goal to move ahead or at least preserve a level game. Suddenly, they needed to repair a two-goal hole against a Montreal team that had already shown it could finish quickly without the power play.
Newhook made the gap three at 6:11 of the second period, scoring his second goal on his second shot. Jamie Benn responded at 8:52, with Johnston assisting and Rantanen collecting his second point of the night. Benn’s goal kept the game within reach, but it was Dallas’ last goal.
Montreal’s four-goal even-strength total against Jake Oettinger had become too large for the Stars’ five-on-five attack to erase.
The Canadiens did not overwhelm Dallas with volume. Montreal finished with 21 shots, only two more than the Stars, and its period totals were 10, 6 and 5. Caufield scored twice on three shots; Newhook scored twice on two.
Those numbers describe efficient finishing, not an all-night barrage. Oettinger stopped 16 of 20 shots, including all six Montreal shots on the power play. His even-strength line was 10 saves on 14 shots, with four goals allowed.
That is a poor goaltending result, but making it the entire explanation would miss the structure of the game. Four goals against at five-on-five can involve the goalie and the skaters in different proportions from one sequence to the next; the scoring record alone does not assign every breakdown.
What can be said plainly is that Montreal converted its limited even-strength opportunities and Dallas did not produce enough comparable offense.
Dallas had some material to support a comeback. The Stars won 36 of 56 faceoffs, a 64.3% share, and finished with 19 shots despite trailing for much of the game. Johnston had a goal and an assist, Rantanen assisted on both Dallas goals, and Robertson led the team with four shots.
The Canadiens were hardly untouchable: Jakub Dobes made 17 saves, and Dallas did draw within two after Benn’s goal.
