Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 15: Rantanen’s hat trick rallies Stars in third to win Game 7

The Stanley Cup Playoffs are back, which means that for the next two months, we’ll get non-stop exciting action in the NHL as we witness history in another team looking to win a championship. Here at Daily Faceoff, we’ll be keeping you in the loop of everything that happened in the playoffs, every day until the Stanley Cup is hoisted in June.

When the Dallas Stars and the Colorado Avalanche seemed set to face off in the first round, you knew that Mikko Rantanen would make his mark on the series at some point. It seemed like it may have already happened when he put up a combined seven points in Game 5 and 6, but he saved his best performance for Game 7.

The game started out more in the Avalanche’s favour. The first half of the game went without a goal, but just before the midway point, a Stars power play got the first goal of the game – for Colorado. Josh Manson’s shorthanded goal gave the Avs the 1-0 lead, and then 31 seconds into the third period, Nathan MacKinnon scored to make it 2-0. Just like that, the Avalanche looked like they were in a good spot.

But that’s when the Rantanen trade reared its ugly head. Eight minutes into the third, he got on the board to cut the lead in half, and then on the power play with about six minutes left in the game, he scored on a crazy play to tie the game for Dallas.

Just when it couldn’t get worse for Colorado, Jack Drury, one of the players acquired for Rantanen, got a holding penalty with just over four minutes left in the game, putting the Stars back on the power play. It took just 17 seconds for Dallas to convert with a goal from Wyatt Johnston (oh, and a secondary assist from Rantanen) to take the lead.

The Avalanche pressed for the tying goal, but couldn’t get anything past Jake Oettinger, and Rantanen completed the hat trick with an empty net goal to put the game away. It also becomes the first time in NHL history that a player got a Game 7 hat trick with all three goals coming in the third period.

With that, the Avalanche take the game by a score of 4-2, and win the series 4-3 to advance to the second round, where they will face the winner of Sunday’s Game 7 between the Winnipeg Jets and St. Louis Blues. It’s the third straight season that the Stars will win their first round series, while the Avalanche find themselves with just one series win in three seasons since winning the Stanley Cup in 2022. On top of that, Stars head coach Pete DeBoer improves to 9-0 in Game 7s, and now has the most Game 7 wins by any coach across the NHL, MLB and NBA.