The puck had not crossed the goal line when the second period ended. That was the finding confirmed by video review after Dallas appeared to score late Thursday in Columbus. The Stars had come close to taking a lead into the break, but the intermission began with neither team on the board.
Dallas still lost 2-1 to the Blue Jackets in a shootout, taking one standings point after the teams traded goals in regulation. The reviewed attempt mattered because it sent the Stars into the third period still scoreless, but it did not decide the night by itself. Dallas eventually scored first. It simply never found the second goal required to make that lead comfortable.
That is the cleanest reading of a game in which the Stars created enough to threaten Columbus but not enough to separate. Cam Talbot stopped 27 of Dallas’ 28 shots through overtime. His second-period work included a scrambling glove save on Esa Lindell at 9:16 and a left-pad stop on Jason Robertson’s breakaway at 16:45.
Those were substantial interventions, not decorative details in a box score. They kept Columbus within reach while Dallas searched for a legal breakthrough.
The late-second-period non-goal should stay in that context. Video review confirmed that the puck was still short of the line when the period expired. There was no verified basis for treating the decision as an officiating controversy.
A close visual moment can produce a noisy reaction, especially when a team appears to have changed the score, but the ruling left the game where the clock said it belonged: tied and scoreless after two periods.
Dallas’ response was the right one. The Stars kept pressing and finally went ahead 6:27 into the third period. Wyatt Johnston created the chance by capitalizing on an Ivan Provorov turnover and putting a shot on goal.
Talbot made the first save; Mikko Rantanen gathered the rebound beside the net, waited for space near the post and finished. The sequence required more than simply throwing another puck at a hot goalie. Dallas had to turn a mistake into a second opportunity, then complete it.
Rantanen’s ninth goal gave Dallas the lead that the second period had nearly produced. It also extended his goal run to three games and his point streak to four. For a team playing without Miro Heiskanen, the finish was especially valuable because it rewarded pressure without asking Casey DeSmith to be perfect at the other end.
Perfection was not required from DeSmith, but Dallas needed to give him a wider margin. He stopped 29 of 30 shots over 65 minutes, a strong night in a game where Columbus generated 30 shots and eventually found its equalizer. Zach Werenski tied the score 16:46 into that period, entering from the left circle and sending a backhand over DeSmith’s left pad.
That goal did not prove Dallas had been overrun. It showed how little protection one goal provided.
