Arttu Hyry’s goal arrived at 19:59 of the third period, one second before the clock could make Dallas sweat any longer. His empty-net shot became the 17th and final Stars shot on goal, sealing a 3-1 victory over Columbus at American Airlines Center on Saturday and finishing a night in which Hyry kept appearing in different places on the scoresheet.
The empty-netter was the visible ending. Hyry’s more important contribution may have come 40 minutes earlier, when his assist helped Thomas Harley make the score 2-0 at 19:59 of the first period. Over the full game, Hyry registered four shots, three hits, a plus-2 rating and no giveaways in 15:23. Dallas had little surplus offense to spare, and Hyry supplied more than the finishing touch.
Four shots amounted to nearly a quarter of Dallas’ total. That put him ahead of Rantanen and Wyatt Johnston, who each had three. He was a substantial source of shots on an evening when Dallas had very few to distribute. The empty-netter made his line look complete; his earlier involvement made it useful.
The assist carried immediate scoreboard value. Harley’s even-strength goal gave Dallas its two-goal lead after Mikko Rantanen had opened the scoring at 2:16 on the power play. Hyry and Miro Heiskanen were credited on the play, and the timing made the point particularly useful.
Columbus matched Dallas with nine first-period shots, yet Harley’s goal sent the teams into intermission separated by two goals. Hyry’s first point helped make that difference.
Rantanen had supplied the special-teams goal, finishing at 2:16 after Jet Greaves’ puck-over-glass infraction gave Dallas the extra skater. Johnston and Robertson earned the assists. Hyry’s first point came at even strength, when Harley gave the Stars another scoring route.
His second came against an empty net. The useful variety was in those circumstances, not in any claim that he had replaced the job of Dallas’ opening scorer.
That range mattered because the middle of the game offered Dallas very little attacking comfort. Columbus outshot the Stars 25-17 overall, and Damon Severson’s even-strength goal at 6:21 of the third period cut the lead to 2-1. Dallas recorded just three third-period shots, including Hyry’s empty-net goal.
The final margin therefore arrived after the difficult portion of the night, rather than describing a game Dallas controlled from start to finish.
Jake Oettinger deserves the central defensive credit. He stopped 24 of 25 shots, including 21 of 22 at even strength and all three Columbus power-play shots. His work kept Severson’s goal from becoming the beginning of a larger problem, especially while Dallas struggled to generate much at the other end.
