Wyatt Johnston finished Thursday night without a goal, yet his most important offensive contribution came before Mikko Rantanen put Dallas ahead. Johnston capitalized on an Ivan Provorov turnover, got a shot on Cam Talbot and created the rebound Rantanen turned into the Stars’ only goal.
Dallas lost 2-1 to Columbus in a shootout, but Johnston supplied the opening that had been missing through two scoreless periods.
The sequence came 6:27 into the third. Johnston took advantage of Provorov’s mistake and sent the puck toward the net. Talbot made the first stop, but the save left a second chance for Rantanen near the cage. Rantanen gathered it, paused until he could shoot toward the short side and scored his ninth goal.
Johnston did the part that made a rebound possible. The initial shot demanded a save; Rantanen supplied the finish after Talbot could not hold the puck. That is a different contribution from a pass directly onto a scorer’s stick, but it belongs in the same account. Without Johnston putting the first attempt on goal, this particular second chance does not exist.
The assist extended his point streak to four games, a run in which he has six points on one goal and five assists. He also finished with zero giveaways. That combination says something about his current value without pretending it says everything about his game.
The scorer did not charge Johnston with a giveaway and still found a way to affect the scoreboard through the goal’s first shot rather than its last touch.
The trouble for Dallas was the lack of a follow-up. Rantanen’s finish was the team’s only goal on 28 shots, and the lead lasted until Zach Werenski scored with 3:14 remaining in regulation. Werenski entered from the left circle and sent a backhand over Casey DeSmith’s left pad 16:46 into that period.
One Columbus defenseman’s finish erased the advantage Johnston had helped create; Dallas never produced another answer before overtime.
There were chances before Johnston’s assist, which is why this was not a night when the Stars simply failed to reach the net. Talbot stopped Esa Lindell’s wrist shot at 9:16 of the second with a scrambling glove save near the right post. Later in the period, he denied Robertson’s breakaway using his left pad. Those were separate opportunities, and both ended without a goal.
Talbot stopped 27 of 28 shots, while DeSmith made 29 saves on 30 through 65:00. The goaltenders kept the score close throughout regulation. Rantanen supplied Dallas’ finish.
Dallas’ other attackers did not, even though Robertson had three shots and Thomas Harley had five, including two in overtime. The numbers are less an indictment of those players than a reminder of how little room the Stars created for themselves once Columbus’ goaltender handled the first wave.
