DALLAS (AP) — Mikko Rantanen carried the Dallas Stars past his former team in the first round of the NHL playoffs, punctuated with a hat trick that was part of his historic four-point third period in Game 7.
Now the Stars could soon be getting back two players who were part of their deep runs the past two postseasons before Rantanen was acquired in a deadline trade in March and promptly signed a $96 million, eight-year contract extension.
Top defenseman Miro Heiskanen and prolific forward Jason Robertson, their leading goal scorer in the regular season, missed the seven-game series against Colorado because of lower-body injuries.
Heiskanen hasn't played since Jan. 28, and Robertson got hurt in the regular-season finale 2 1/2 weeks ago. Both are experienced 25-year-old players.
“I consider them both day to day now but, you know, there’s still some hurdles,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said after their 4-2 series-clinching win over Colorado on Saturday night. “I believe you’re going to see them both play in the second round. I don't know whether it's going to be Game 1, Game 3 or Game 5."
Dallas has now won a Game 7 in each of DeBoer's first three postseasons, and made it to the Western Conference Final each of the past two.
The Stars were waiting to find out which team they will play in the second round, as well as when and where it will start. Top-seeded Winnipeg and St. Louis were set to play Game 7 of their first-round series Sunday night.
Rantanen had only one assist in the first four games against Colorado before 11 points (five goals, six assists) the rest of the series. That scoring output set a Stars franchise record for any three-game postseason stretch, and made him the first player in NHL history — playoffs and regular season combined — to have consecutive games with four-point periods.
He was only the second NHL player to have four points in the third period of a Game 7. He also is the only one of nine players with a Game 7 hat trick to score all his goals in the final period.
“You can't write it up any better than that,” Stars goalie Jake Oettinger said. “A guy comes over and knocks out his old team, puts the team on his back, and one of the best individual performances I’ve seen in the playoffs in my life.”
Rantanen had 101 points (34 goals, 67 assists) in 81 playoff games for the Avalanche the past seven seasons, including their 2022 Stanley Cup run.
While it was often pointed out that those impressive numbers came when playing with Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar in that stretch, they were on the opposite side for Rantanen's postseason debut with the Stars.
“I think he answered that question,” DeBoer said. “I’ve had a lot of playoff runs and I haven’t had a player string together the three games he’s strung together — Games 5, 6 and 7 — how dominant he’s been shift to shift.”
With Rantanen already doing that, and the pending return of Heiskanen (61 points in 85 playoff games) and Robertson (38 points in 45 playoff games), Dallas certainly has every reason to feel confident moving forward. The Stars just beat a division rival that outscored them 24-21 and outshot them by nearly eight a game.
“I have a hard time believing that there’s any team that’s much better than Colorado out there,” said Oettinger, who is 3-1 in Game 7s.
“There’s something special going on,” said DeBoer, the first NHL coach or player be part of nine Game 7 victories. “It sure doesn’t feel like we’ve only won one round. We’re just getting started, but that was an absolute gauntlet of a series.”
Wyatt Johnston, who will turn 22 during the second round, scored the go-ahead goal Saturday night on a power play with 3:56 left. He has a goal in all three of his Game 7s over three seasons, with the series-clinching tally in each of his past two to become the first NHL player with multiple winners at 22 or younger.
“We have such a great group and I think we have so much confidence in our team that we can beat anyone, and it’s great to go against a team that’s one of the best teams in the league in Colorado,” Johnston said. “I think as a group, we have that confidence that we can win any series against anyone.”
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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
Stephen Hawkins, The Associated Press
