The Winnipeg Jets faced Dallas Stars winger Mikko Rantanen seven times during the regular season, but the postseason version has been a different story.
After leading the Stars to victory with hat tricks in the past two games, Rantanen will try to continue his recent scoring surge in Game 2 on Friday night in Winnipeg.
Rantanen scored three goals in the third period of a 4-2 win against the Colorado Avalanche in Game 7 of their first-round series on Saturday. He then scored three in the second period of a 3-2 victory over the Jets in Game 1 of their second-round series on Wednesday.
He’s the first NHL player in nearly 40 years to have a hat trick in consecutive playoff games and the third in league history.
Rantanen is also the first player in NHL history with multiple three-goal periods during the same postseason.
“Linemates, teammates are obviously helping me a lot on the ice,” Rantanen said. “Such a deep lineup we have, so it doesn’t really matter who you play with.”
Rantanen began this season with the Avalanche and had a goal and an assist in four games against Winnipeg before he was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes on Jan. 24.
He played the Jets once in a Carolina uniform, a 3-0 loss on Feb. 4, and then was traded on March 7 to Dallas, where he went scoreless in two more regular-season games against Winnipeg.
He had a lukewarm start to the postseason as well, totaling one assist through the first four games against Colorado before exploding for eight goals and six assists in the past four.
Rantanen has factored in the past 12 goals by Dallas, which is the longest streak in Stanley Cup playoff history.
“Keep it going. Let’s see how long he can run this for,” Stars 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.”
The Jets finished 10 points ahead of the Stars for first place in the Central Division during the regular season, winning three of the four meetings and scoring a total of 13 goals while allowing five.
They weren’t the dominant team in Game 1, however.
“We know we just gave up home-ice advantage,” Jets coach Scott Arniel said. “And that wasn’t a game where they rolled over top of us for three periods. That was a game where we weren’t at our best.”
Winnipeg goalie Connor Hellebuyck allowed three goals for the second consecutive game on Wednesday. That’s well off his league-leading 2.01 goals-against average during the regular season, but much better than the four-game stretch in the St. Louis series when he allowed 19 goals on 85 shots.
The Jets welcomed back top-line center Mark Scheifele for Game 1 after he missed the final two games of the St. Louis series with an undisclosed injury. Scheifele scored the second goal for the Jets in his return.
Arniel needs the rest of the team to show more desperation than they did on Wednesday, when Arniel said it felt more like a game “in the middle of December.”
“Obviously, we know the high we’re on coming off that St. Louis game but, man, this is the playoffs,’ Arniel said. “There’s a way we have to play as a group, and that’s not how we played (in Game 1).”
–Field Level Media
