Mikko Rantanen is on one of the great heaters in Stanley Cup Playoff history.
After carrying the Dallas Stars to victory against the Colorado Avalanche in Game 7 of the first round with a third-period hat trick, Rantanen did it again on Wednesday with a natural hat trick in the second period. He accounted for all of his team's goals in a 3-2 victory against the Winnipeg Jets at Canada Life Centre in the opener of their Western Conference Second Round series.
Rantanen scored three times in less than eight minutes, turning a one-goal deficit into a 3-1 lead. That was enough for the Stars , who won a series opener for the first time in nine tries since defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 1 of the 2020 Stanley Cup Final.
After a first period that belonged to the goaltenders, with Jeff Oettinger of the Stars making 13 saves and Connor Hellebuyck of the Jets stopping all 12 shots he faced, all five goals came in the second.
Nino Niederreiter put the Jets ahead 3:30 into the second with a perfect backhander from the lower right circle that beat Oettinger and caught the far corner. But Rantanen tied it with a great individual effort. After Hellebuyck stopped Evgenii Dadonov 's Grade A chance from the lower right circle but couldn't control the rebound, "Moose" used his 6-foot-4, 215-pound frame to outbattle Jets defenseman Dylan Samberg and poke the puck into the net.
Rantanen used his quick hands to put the Stars ahead 2-1 at 14:21, deflecting a left-point shot by defenseman Thomas Harley past Hellebuyck. His third goal was a lucky one; the Finnish forward's pass hit Samberg and went past a helpless Hellebuyck at 16:38.
Mark Scheifele , returning after missing Games 6 and 7 against the St. Louis Blues due to injury, cut the margin to 3-2 just 55 seconds later after a gruesome turnover by Stars captain Jamie Benn . But after the teams combined for five goals in a span of 14:05, the red lights got the rest of the night off. The Jets outshot the Stars 10-4 in the third period but couldn't get another puck past Oettinger, who backed up Hellebuyck for Team USA at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February.
Game 2 is Friday in Winnipeg, and to say the Jets need a win would be an enormous understatement. They were 0-3 on the road in their first-round series against the St. Louis Blues. A loss in Game 2 would leave the Presidents' Trophy winners needing to win at least twice in Dallas – or join the ranks of regular-season champions who've failed to win the Cup. The last team to capture both was the Chicago Blackhawks in 2013.
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Credit: Terrence Lee-Imagn Images
Rantanen's performance earned him a few lines in the NHL record book.
He became the third player in Stanley Cup history – and the first in 40 years – to have hat tricks in back-to-back playoff games. Chicago's Doug Bentley did in in Games 4 and 5 of the 1944 Semifinals, and Jari Kurri of the Edmonton Oilers did it in Games 5 and 6 of the 1985 Campbell Conference Final.
In addition, he's the first player to have multiple three-goal periods in the same postseason. For good measure, he's done it in consecutive games.
Rantanen has factored on each of Dallas' last 12 goals, passing Mario Lemieux for the longest streak in Stanley Cup history. They were tied at nine in a row before Wednesday. Rantanen's streak includes seven goals and five assists.
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Rantanen provided the offense, but Scheifele's goal late in the second period gave the Jets new life entering the third period. Winnipeg outplayed Dallas badly in the final 20 minutes and had an 8-1 advantage in high-danger scoring chances in all situations, according to Natural Stat Trick.
But Oettinger was up to the task. He denied Scheifele on a great chance early in the period, and again during a power play with less than 12 minutes remaining. His best sequence came after the Jets pulled Hellebuyck with less than two minutes remaining, stopping three shots in a few seconds during a wild scramble.
Credit: Terrence Lee-Imagn Images
The Stars have now been outshot by 62 in their eight playoff games. Thanks to Oettinger, they've won five of them.
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Winnipeg led the NHL in power-play percentage during the regular season, converting 28.9 percent of its opportunities – and 31.6 percent at home.
But the Jets were just 5-for-22 in the opening round against the Blues, and they started their second-round series against the Stars by going 0-for-4. Even worse, they allowed the Stars to score what turned out to be the winning goal 27 seconds into their first power play.
Winnipeg's 63 goals scored on the power play, 21 more than they allowed, was a big reason the Jets won the Presidents' Trophy for the first time in their history. But they've been outscored 7-5 on the power play in the playoffs – a big reason they nearly lost to St. Louis in the first round and trail the Stars entering Game 2 of the second round.
