Hintz Ends It in Round Four: Stars Win a 3-2 Shootout in Denver, DeSmith Gets No. 100, and the Home-and-Home Ends in a Split

By Nolan Frost, RF Sports Radio Stars voice

Stars Nation, that is how you answer a Tuesday loss. Different building, Cale Makar back in the Avalanche lineup, and Dallas still walked out of Denver with two points and a split.

The facts

The Dallas Stars beat the Colorado Avalanche 3-2 in a shootout on Wednesday, Oct. 14, at Ball Arena, per NHL.com. Roope Hintz scored the shootout winner in the fourth round, and Jason Robertson also scored in the shootout. Miro Heiskanen scored in regulation, and Hyry added a shorthanded goal. Casey DeSmith made 25 saves for the 100th win of his NHL career.

Gabriel Landeskog and Brock Nelson scored for Colorado, Nazem Kadri had two assists, and Scott Wedgewood made 20 saves. Makar returned after missing Tuesday's game for the birth of his twins. Stars forward Oskar Back left in the first period with an upper-body injury and did not return.

Dallas improved to 3-3-1 and Colorado fell to 4-2-1. The win split the home-and-home after the Avalanche won 3-2 at American Airlines Center on Tuesday. The Stars are also still without Matt Duchene, who had surgery for a core injury and is expected to be out about three months; he has been on long-term injured reserve since Oct. 1, per NHL.com.

RF Sports Radio's take (opinion)

My take: this was a character win more than a pretty one. Dallas did not dominate Colorado for 65 minutes. It did something better for October: it stayed patient against one of the best teams in the West, got a shorthanded goal when it needed a spark, and let a backup goalie steal a milestone night. DeSmith making 25 saves in that building is the kind of performance that saves a coaching staff from overworking its starter in the first month.

The shootout itself is a coin flip, and I am not going to pretend otherwise. Hintz and Robertson cashing in is nice. The more important takeaway is that Dallas leaves Denver at .500 instead of 2-4-1, and that matters in a season that started slower than this roster should allow. Now the depth chart is the worry. Duchene is months away, and if Back's upper-body injury lingers, the bottom six gets thin in a hurry.

My call: this split becomes the turn. The Stars climb above .500 within their next three games, and DeSmith gets at least one more start in that stretch. That is a prediction, not a report. If Back misses time on top of Duchene's absence, expect a call-up conversation by next week.

What to watch next

Watch for an update on Back's upper-body injury, how the coaching staff splits the net after DeSmith's 100th win, and how Dallas fills Duchene's minutes. For Wednesday's rematch preview, read our Wednesday preview of the rematch in Denver, and follow the Dallas Stars page.

Radio question: was Wednesday's shootout win in Denver a turning point for this Stars season, or just two lucky points in a coin-flip skills contest?

Sources: NHL.com — Stars vs. Avalanche recap, Oct. 14, 2026; Colorado Avalanche — Game recap, Oct. 14; NHL.com — Matt Duchene has surgery, will be out 3 months.