Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 26 shots and still watched Dallas score four times. That is an awkward night for a goaltender, and a revealing one for the Stars. Their 4-3 win over San Jose on Saturday came from finding ways around his work when the Sharks were shorthanded, rather than repeatedly beating him with the teams skating at equal strength.
Dallas scored on three of its five power plays. Nedeljkovic allowed only one even-strength goal, Jamie Benn’s first-period finish from Roope Hintz’s setup. The division matters because the final score can make a productive attack look uniform. The Stars had to assemble this one from several kinds of chances.
Their tying goal was the least tidy and perhaps the best place to start. Thomas Harley put a shot toward the net, Wyatt Johnston redirected it and Hintz finished the loose puck beside the left post. The four-on-three advantage gave Dallas the opportunity.
The initial attempt and rebound work made something of it, turning an unsuccessful first finish into a goal at 9:16 of the opening period.
That sequence does not require blaming Nedeljkovic for failing to catch or control a particular puck. The verified description is enough: a point shot, a tip and a rebound finish. Dallas made the goalie respond to more than one part of the attack. Hintz’s arrival at the puck completed work that Harley and Johnston had started.
Jason Robertson’s goal posed a different problem. Mikko Rantanen passed from the opposite circle and Robertson snapped the puck above Nedeljkovic’s glove. It came 1:34 after Benn’s even-strength goal, pushing the Stars ahead 3-1 before the first intermission. Dallas had added a clean power-play finish to the earlier rebound goal, with Harley earning the other assist.
The Sharks did not collapse around their goalie. Ivar Stenberg scored early in the second period, and Nedeljkovic finished with 26 saves from 30 Dallas shots. San Jose was playing for the second consecutive night after losing in Minnesota.
It would be easy to treat a fifth straight regulation defeat as evidence that this opponent offered little resistance. The one-goal margin says otherwise. Dallas took seven shots on goal in the final period without converting one.
That quiet finish gave the earlier power-play goals their full weight: the Stars could not count on another scoring burst to make the lead comfortable.
Harley supplied the shot Dallas eventually needed to stand up. Johnston fed him at the point in the second period, and the one-timer went under Nedeljkovic’s right pad. That restored the two-goal margin, making it 4-2 with 14:30 elapsed. The play gave Johnston another primary assist and Harley his third power-play point, this time as the finisher.
Then San Jose made the separation uncomfortable again. Will Smith scored during a five-on-three advantage, receiving Mason Marchment’s pass across the crease. Macklin Celebrini assisted on that goal and the Sharks’ other two. His three assists and six shots helped make this a game Dallas had to keep defending, rather than a succession of offensive opportunities against a helpless opponent.
