As soon as i conquer the last asteroid on the left side (the big one) the game appears to consider the level to be completed no matter what. Now there are two outcomes:
1) All asteroids have been conquered - the level finishes without a problem.
2) There are asteroids left to be conquered - the "level finish" sound plays, then the game freezes.
I've tried this numerous times, it's 100% reproducible (at least here).
My guess is there are some leftovers from the story mode that screw things up in DM mode.