DALLAS — It wasn’t a handshake line at the end of this remarkable seven-game series for Mikko Rantanen.
It was a hug line.
Rantanen has had many incredible postseason performances in his NHL career. This was maybe his best, and it came at the expense of his friends.
After he nearly tore out the hearts of the Colorado Avalanche with a four-point period in Game 6, he did it again. Only this time, it was the third period of Game 7. Rantanen erased a two-goal deficit by scoring a hat trick and assisting on another in a 4-2 win for the Dallas Stars.
“It’s emotional. They’re my brothers for sure,” Rantanen said. “Most of them, I know really well and played with them for 10 years. A couple of guys have been there since Day 1 — (Nathan MacKinnon) and (Gabe Landeskog).
“We’re enemies this series on the ice, but I always love them off the ice. Between games, day off, I love every one one of them. And then when we go on the ice, they’re enemies. But that’s how it goes. Yeah, it’s emotional for sure.”
One hundred days ago, Rantanen woke up as a member of the Avalanche. He got on the charter plane with his teammates and went to Boston. That night, he walked down the hall in the team hotel to find out he had been traded to the Carolina Hurricanes.
Six weeks later, he was traded again — this time to Colorado’s biggest rival. He signed an eight-year, $96 million contract that starts next season.
Four games into this series, the Avs had done a great job of containing their old pal. Then the guy known as “Moose” … well, he got loose.
Three points in Game 5. Four in Game 6. Four in Game 7.
“He took over the series the last three, four games,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “He just decided that we were not going to go home and we were not going to lose.
“What you witnessed there was special. This is the best league in the world, against one of the top five teams in the world, and what he did there down the stretch was special.”
When Rantanen and his new center, Roope Hintz, both tied an NHL playoff record with four points in a period in Game 6, it brought the Stars back from down 2-0 to take a 4-3 lead with 20 minutes to go. The Avs were stunned, but they rallied for a 7-4 victory to force this Game 7.
There was no rally to be had from this Rantanen rampage. He scored with 12:11 remaining in the third on a great shot from the between the circles. He scored again after collecting the puck in the neutral zone, barreling past defenseman Ryan Lindgren and putting a wraparound attempt off Samuel Girard and in.
He and fellow ex-Avs star Matt Duchene set up Wyatt Johnston’s series-winner with 3:56 remaining. Then he got the party started a few seconds early with an empty-net goal.
At least one Stars fan in the lower level at American Airlines Center launched a hat toward the ice while the puck was still on his stick.
“That’s the thing with Mikko, it’s not about always just creating multiple chances like every time he touches the puck, but (the) big moments,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “Look at that first goal, pretty nice individual effort, rips it off the bar down. Finds a way to get the other one on the wrap around. Hits our skate, but it’s still a high-quality play and he capitalizes on it.
“He’s a pure goal scorer. He did that in the third.”
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There will be no more online chatter about Rantanen’s ability to produce away from MacKinnon after this series. He leads the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs with 12 points — one more than MacKinnon and McDavid.
“Obviously the feeling is incredible,” Rantanen said. “To win a series, first of all, against a really good team. The series was exactly what I expected, you know, I expected a seven-game series even before Game 1.
“Like I said before when I got traded, it’s business. … I don’t know about revenge, I’m just happy to win (against) another team in the playoffs. It doesn’t matter who it is. So, I’m just happy to be on the winning side and move on here.”
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