Rantanen has hat trick, 4 points for Stars in 3rd period of Game 7 to eliminate former Avalanche teammates

DALLAS -- Mikko Rantanen got his revenge.

The Dallas Stars were minutes from elimination Saturday when he exploded for three goals and an assist, leading his new team to a 4-2 win in Game 7 of the Western Conference First Round against the team that had traded him, the Colorado Avalanche.

The forward became the first player to record a hat trick in the third period of a Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

“Obviously, things happened not the way I expected to happen [with Colorado], but it’s business, like I’ve said many times,” Rantanen said. “I don’t know. 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.”

The Avalanche traded Rantanen to the Carolina Hurricanes on Jan. 24, only to watch the Hurricanes flip him to their Central Division rivals on March 7. The pending unrestricted free agent signed an eight-year, $96 million contract with the Stars.

Now it was the third period of Game 7. Colorado led 2-0. American Airlines Center was silent.

Rantanen carried the puck into the offensive zone and fired a wrist shot into the upper left corner of the net, cutting the lead to 2-1 at 7:49. He wrapped around the net, and the puck bounced in off the skate of Avalanche defenseman Samuel Girard at 13:46, tying the game 2-2. He assisted on a power-play goal by center Wyatt Johnston at 16:04, giving the Stars a 3-2 lead.

Finally, he iced the game with an empty-net goal with 2.7 seconds left and pumped his right fist as the arena roared. The Avalanche had to watch as crew members picked up all the hats the fans tossed onto the ice.

“It’s pretty shocking,” Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon said. “I felt like we were in total control, and Mikko, credit to him, he made some amazing plays. He was the difference-maker. He took over. Yeah, I don’t know. I’m in shock, to be honest.”

Rantanen had one assist through the first four games of the series, but he had 11 points (five goals, six assists) in the last three. He now leads the playoffs with 12 points (five goals, seven assists).

“Let’s be honest,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “He took over the series the last three, four games. He just decided that we were not going to go home and we were not going to lose. I think it started then. But I mean, what you witnessed there was special. …

“This was Colorado and the team he had played for for a decade, and I don’t know all the behind the scenes, what went on there. But he was a motivated guy to make an impact in this series, and he just got better and better.”

There is no doubt Rantanen is one of the best playoff producers in NHL history. He entered this season averaging 1.25 points per game in the playoffs, tied with Mark Messier for sixth among players who had played at least 74 games. But people asked if that was because he had played with MacKinnon and Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar.

“I think he answered that question,” DeBoer said. “I’ve had a lot of playoff runs, and I know I haven’t had a player string together the three games he strung together -- 5, 6 and 7 -- how dominant he’s been shift to shift.”

The handshake line was emotional. Rantanen had gone through so much with so many of the guys on the other side, including winning the Stanley Cup in 2022. He called them his “brothers.” Present tense.

“I always love them off the ice,” Rantanen said. “It doesn’t matter if it was between games, the day off. I love every one of them. And then when we go on the ice, they’re enemies. That’s how it goes.

“Yeah, it’s emotional, for sure, because everything happened so quick. It’s only a couple months since I was still with them, playing with them and chasing a playoff spot and stuff, and now I’m, all of a sudden, a couple months later, playing against them in a Game 7, so emotional is the right word for sure.”

Surreal is another word. Rantanen was asked how he would have reacted had someone told him in training camp he’d have a hat trick for Dallas to defeat Colorado in a Game 7.

“I think I would have left the room in disbelief,” he said. “Yeah, for sure, would have not believed it if somebody told me that. Yeah, difficult year personally. Mentally tough overall, getting traded twice. It’s not fun ever to get traded even once, but twice in the season [is even harder].”

Rantanen thanked everyone in Dallas for welcoming him and helping him adapt.

“You can’t write it up any better than that -- guy comes over and knocks out his old team, puts the team on his back,” Stars goalie Jake Oettinger said. “One of the best individual performances I’ve seen in playoffs in my life, so just so happy for him.

“And it’s just the start.”