WINNIPEG — Mikko Rantanen’s teammates are soaking up his prowess with the puck -- again.
The Dallas forward scored a natural hat trick in a span of less than eight minutes as the Stars took a 3-2 victory over the Winnipeg Jets in Game 1 of their second-round NHL playoffs series on Wednesday.
Rantanen also scored a third-period hat trick in the Stars’ Game 7 win over Colorado in the first round.
“It's a treat,” Dallas centre Sam Steel said of Rantanen’s roll. “He's one of the best players in the world and he's just on fire right now, so we're just trying to get him the puck.”
Rantanen became the third player in NHL history — and the first in nearly 40 years — with hat tricks in consecutive playoff games.
Edmonton’s Jari Kurri accomplished the feat in Games 5 and 6 of the 1985 Campbell Conference final, and Chicago’s Doug Bentley did the same in Game 4 and 5 of the 1944 Stanley Cup final.
“Sometimes it goes that way,” Rantanen said. “The third goal goes off them and goes five hole. Or when you’re going through a tough stretch, you feel like you could only pray for those and those never come.
“So sometimes it’s ups and downs in hockey and now it’s going well individually and as a team.”
Rantanen, who joined Dallas at the trade deadline, has factored on each of his team’s last 12 goals, marking the longest streak by a player in Stanley Cup playoff history.
Hi point streak sits at four games with eight goals and six assists. The 28-year-old Finnish sniper has 15 points this post-season.
“We all know how elite he is,” Jets winger Nino Niederreiter said. “He’s really done it these last few games and throughout his whole career.
“Always a fantastic player, but we’ve got to find a way to shut him down and not make it too easy on him.”
Wednesday's game marked the first post-season meeting between Winnipeg and Dallas.
The Jets earned home-ice advantage through the playoffs after finishing the regular season with a league-best 116 points. The Stars were second in the Central Division and third in the Western Conference with 106 points.
Jake Oettinger stopped 29 shots for Dallas on Wednesday as the Stars snapped an eight-game drought of losing the first game of a playoff series.
Niederreiter and Mark Scheifele scored for the Jets, who snapped a four-game home win streak at Canada Life Centre. Connor Hellebuyck made 21 saves.
Winnipeg didn't get its first shot on goal until just over seven minutes into the first period. Dallas had eight at that point.
Neither team scored during an opening frame where the Jets outshoot the visitors 13-12 and outhit them 14-10.
Niederreiter got the sold-out crowd cheering when his sharp-angled backhand beat Oettinger at the 3:30 mark of the second period. He became the NHL’s first Swiss-born player to skate in 100 career post-season contests.
Rantanen tied it up at 8:43 with his sixth goal of the playoffs when he poked the puck in after a rebound.
His second goal was a tip of Thomas Harley’s point shot at 14:21, and he made it 3-1 on the power play two minutes later when his shot went in off Jets defenceman Dylan Samberg.
“Whenever you face elite players, you have to know where they are,” Arniel said of Rantanen, noting he was on Dallas’s fourth line for two of his goals.
“Obviously, he's feeling it coming off of Game 7. We've got to know when he's on the ice. He's a guy that you have to make sure, especially (that) you tie up that stick of his."
Scheifele scored with 2:25 remaining in the second.
Winnipeg got its fourth power play of the game early in the third and came up empty again.
Hellebuyck was pulled with just under two minutes on the game clock. Oettinger was swarmed, but still stopped Scheifele from in tight.
Game 2 of the best-of-seven series goes Friday in Winnipeg.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 7, 2025.
Judy Owen, The Canadian Press
