Rantanen scores 2nd straight hat trick, Stars top Jets in Game 1 of West 2nd Round

WINNIPEG -- Mikko Rantanen scored a natural hat trick in the second period, helping the Dallas Stars to a 3-2 win against the Winnipeg Jets in Game 1 of the Western Conference Second Round at Canada Life Centre on Wednesday.

“Sometimes it’s ups and downs in hockey and now it’s going well individually and as a team,” Rantanen said. “But it’s important in the playoffs, like I’ve said before, if you win or you have a good game never get too high. You’ve got to reset and enjoy. Enjoy it for five minutes after the game and then reset.”

Rantanen became the first player in Stanley Cup Playoffs history with multiple three-goal periods in the same postseason; he had three goals in the third period against the Colorado Avalanche in Game 7 of the first round on Saturday.

“[Rantanen is] just somebody that you always have to know when he's on the ice,” Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel said. “Whenever you face elite players, you have to know where they are. 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 you tie up that stick of his.”

The forward has 14 points (eight goals, six assists) in his past four games. He has factored on 12 straight Dallas goals which marks the longest streak by a player in Stanley Cup Playoffs history.

“Let’s see how long he can run this for,” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. “Yeah, he’s rolling and he’s feeling it. Pretty impressive, what he’s doing. I mean, considering the opponent and the time of year and how he’s dominating games -- really impressive."

Jake Oettinger made 29 saves for the Stars, who are the No. 2 seed from the Central Division.

"I thought [Oettinger] was excellent,” Rantanen said. “I think we played a good two periods and then they were pushing really hard in the third and we kind of sat back maybe too much. We talked about trying to be aggressive but they’re obviously a very good team. They were pushing and we were kind of on our heels. ‘Otter’ was the difference-maker in the third.”

Nino Niederreiter and Mark Scheifele scored for the Jets, who won the Presidents’ Trophy which is awarded annually to the team with the best regular-season record in the NHL. Connor Hellebuyck made 21 saves.

“Right out of the gate I thought our detail, whether that was on face-off execution, when we won draws, whether that was tape-to-tape passing, just execution -- there was a lot of sloppiness to that game,” Arniel said. “That did not feel like a playoff game, Game 1 in Round 2. That felt like Game 45 in the middle of December. Obviously, we know the high that we're on coming off that St. Louis game, but man, this is the playoffs. That's a game that no matter how you start the game or however you get into the game it's one of those ones that there's a way we have to play as a group and that's not how we played tonight.”

Game 2 in the best-of-7 series is here on Friday (9:30 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, TNT, truTV, MAX).

“It's never easy, especially here [in Winnipeg], especially against this team,” Dallas forward Sam Steel said. “We wanted to get out ahead early and I thought we had a great start and just love the way we play for the most part. It's not perfect, but it's a great Game 1 on the road.”

Niederreiter made it 1-0 Jets at 3:30 of the second period, chipping a backhand in off the far post from below the right face-off dot on the rush.

“We need to be sharper, we need to be better, we just need to be better on details,” Niederreiter said. “As cliche as it sounds, our overall game wasn’t good enough.”

Rantanen then scored three consecutive goals in a span of 7:55.

He tied it 1-1 at 8:43, jamming in the rebound from Evgenii Dadonov's one-timer.

“We’ve traditionally been a four-line team so [Rantanen’s] taken a little bit of a haircut ice time-wise with us,” DeBoer said. “But I’ve been trying to supplement that a little bit because he is used to getting more ice and it’s a lot easier when he’s going like he is now, obviously.”

Rantanen made it 2-1 with a tip on Thomas Harley’s shot from the point at 14:21 and pushed it to 3-1 on the power play when his shot redirected in off the stick of Jets defenseman Dylan Samberg at 16:38.

“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."

Scheifele cut it to 3-2, scoring 57 seconds later with wrist shot in the slot at 17:35 after Gabriel Vilardi stole the puck from Dallas forward Jamie Benn behind the net.

“I don’t think we really found [our game] until the third period,” Scheifele said. “It obviously wasn’t a great start, so obviously there are some things that we can do better. We didn’t play great, and we were right in it, so there’s a positive you can take out of it. From there, we can move on to the next one.”

Scheifele missed the previous two games because of an undisclosed injury sustained during the first period of Game 5 in the first round against the St. Louis Blues.

“It was awful,” Scheifele said of having to watch Games 6 and 7. “It’s a feeling that you don’t want to wish on anyone. It was tough to watch, but obviously just super proud of the boys for that Game 7 comeback and win and to make sure my season wasn’t ended. That was amazing by them and now we’ve moved on to another series.”

NOTES: Rantanen entered Wednesday tied with Mario Lemieux who had a point on nine straight playoff goals with the 1992 Penguins. … Dallas won the opening game of a playoff series for the first time since the Stanley Cup Final in 2020, ending an eight-game skid in series openers. … Stars forward Jason Robertson skated 13:34 in his first game of the playoffs after missing the first round with a lower-body injury. Robertson led Dallas with 35 goals in 82 regular-season games and was second with 80 points, behind forward Matt Duchene (82). … Winnipeg outhit Dallas 46-24. … Scheifele led all Jets players with seven shots on goal, and has seven points (three goals, four assists) in six games in these playoffs.