Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 19: Leafs take 2-0 lead; Rantanen’s hat trick gives Stars Game 1 win

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.

Maple Leafs take 2-0 series lead to Florida

The Toronto Maple Leafs were a strong underdog going into their second round matchup against the Florida Panthers, but so far, they’re proving everybody wrong. After a strong Game 1 win, Game 2 was a little bit more back-and-forth, with the Panthers taking 1-0 lead in the first and a 2-1 early in the second. But they responded both times, and late in the second, Max Domi beat Sergei Bobrovsky to give the Leafs a 3-2 lead heading into the third.

Anton Lundell thought he had changed the momentum of the game five minutes into the third when he tied the game again, but Mitch Marner had other ideas. Just 17 seconds after Lundell’s goal, Marner through the puck on net, and it found it’s way past Bobrovsky to give the Leafs a 4-3 lead. The Panthers pressured down the stretch, but the Leafs held on to take the 4-3 win, and now have a 2-0 lead in the series heading to Florida, the exact opposite from the last time these two teams met in 2023.

Rantanen has another hat trick in Stars’ 3-2 win

Remember when Mikko Rantanen had only one point in four playoff games? We sure don’t anymore because he has completely turned his game around in his next four. Already with 11 points to close out the final three games of the first round for the Dallas Stars, including a hat trick in Game 7, he carried that momentum into Game 1 against the Winnipeg Jets.

After Nino Neiderreiter opened the scoring in the second, Rantanen responded with three straight goals in less than eight minutes to give the Stars a 3-1 lead. That gave him his second straight hat trick, and he became the third player in NHL history to score a hat trick in back-to-back playoff games. Mark Scheifele responded 57 seconds after that to draw the game within one, but the Jets didn’t score any more goals in the third, with Dallas hanging on for the 3-2 win and the 1-0 series lead.