Jack Hughes made the important pass before he made the important shot. At 11:45 of the second period, his no-look delivery put Jesper Boqvist in position to score from above the right circle, pushing New Jersey’s lead over the Dallas Stars to 3-0. Later in the period, Dallas finally produced a goal. Twenty-eight seconds after that, Luke Hughes restored the three-goal margin.
That sequence explains the Hughes brothers’ influence better than their matching one-goal, one-assist lines. In New Jersey’s 5-1 victory Tuesday at American Airlines Center, Jack worked as both creator and finisher. Luke, a defenseman, supplied the immediate response when Dallas’s only breakthrough threatened to give the game a different shape.
Boqvist still had to finish from above the right circle. Jack’s assist and his later goal were distinct ways of adding offense: the first ended with a teammate taking the shot, the other with Jack taking it himself. Dallas had to defend both roles, and New Jersey got a goal from each.
He later completed his own portion of the evening. With 6:45 left in the third period, Jack scored New Jersey’s fifth goal, taking assists from Brett Pesce and Jesper Bratt. The finish came after Dallas had spent much of the night trying to generate enough offense to stay attached.
Jack’s contribution therefore covered both ends of the scoring chain: he opened one goal for a teammate and finished another himself.
Luke’s work had a different texture. At 00:38 of the second period, he received the second assist on Nico Hischier’s second goal of the game, which followed Timo Meier’s setup. That was a supporting touch, not Jack’s direct pass to Boqvist, and the distinction is worth keeping. The brothers influenced separate goals in separate ways rather than combining on every Devils attack.
Then came Dallas’s brief foothold. At 16:08 of the second, Justin Hryckowian redirected Tyler Myers’ point shot for the Stars’ only goal. Colin Blackwell also received an assist, and the finish cut New Jersey’s advantage to 3-1 with 3:52 remaining in the period.
Hryckowian’s tip-in was a legitimate net-front conversion, not a gift: Dallas got a shot through and placed a stick where it could alter the puck’s path.
Luke erased the benefit 28 seconds later. His wrist shot at 16:36 restored New Jersey’s three-goal lead, with Dougie Hamilton and Anthony Mantha assisting. The timing did not make Hryckowian’s goal meaningless; it made it difficult for Dallas to build anything from it.
A two-goal deficit still offers a team room to push. A three-goal deficit returned almost immediately leaves far less room for the next possession to matter.
New Jersey’s control around those moments was substantial. The Devils finished with 27 shots to Dallas’s 18 and held a 15-4 edge in the second period, a period that began with New Jersey ahead 1-0 and ended at 4-1. Dallas killed three New Jersey power plays and received no power play of its own.
Every Devils goal came at even strength. The separation came at even strength, where the Devils kept producing chances while the Stars struggled to sustain pressure.
