Mikko Rantanen scored three consecutive goals in the second period for his second straight playoff hat trick, leading the visiting Dallas Stars to a 3-2 win against the Winnipeg Jets in Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinal series on Wednesday.
Rantanen also 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.
“Let’s see how long he can run this for,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said of Rantanen. “He’s rolling and he’s feeling it and pretty impressive what he’s doing, considering the opponent and the time of year and how he’s dominating games.”
Jake Oettinger made 29 saves for the Stars, who had lost eight straight Game 1s.
Nino Niederreiter and Mark Scheifele scored while Connor Hellebuyck stopped 21 shots for the Jets, who were coming off a Game 7 win against the St. Louis Blues on Sunday.
Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is on Friday in Winnipeg.
“We made some individual mistakes, but our team game I thought, overall, was pretty good,” DeBoer said. “There’s a formula in what we did tonight that I think can be successful throughout the series, hopefully. So, we’ve just got to keep building on those things and eliminate some of the individual mistakes, but you’re never going to play a perfect game.”
After a scoreless first period, the Jets took a 1-0 lead at 3:30 of the second when Niederreiter scored with a backhand into the far side of the net from the bottom of the right circle.
Rantanen scored the first of his three goals at 8:43 of the second to tie it 1-1. Hellebuyck made a save on Evgenii Dadonov, but the rebound fell in the crease and Rantanen pushed the puck into the net with one hand on his stick.
Rantanen scored again at 14:21 of the middle frame when he tipped in a point shot while in the left circle.
Dallas was on a power play when Rantanen completed the natural hat trick to make it 3-1 at 16:38. His wrist shot from the right circle went off the skate of Winnipeg defenseman Dylan Samberg and into the net, making Rantanen the first player in NHL history with multiple three-goal periods during the same postseason.
Rantanen also etched his name into the NHL record books by becoming the third player ever to record hat tricks in consecutive playoff games, joining Jari Kurri (1985 conference finals) and Doug Bentley (1944 Stanley Cup Final).
“He’s just somebody that you always have to know when he’s on the ice,” Jets coach Scott Arniel said of Rantanen. “Whenever you face elite players, you’ve got to know where they are and, obviously, he’s feeling it coming off of Game 7.”
The Jets trimmed the deficit to 3-2 at 17:35 of the second when Scheifele scored with a wrist shot from the right hashmarks off a feed from Gabriel Vilardi.
Scheifele had missed the final two games of the first-round series against the Blues after sustaining an undisclosed injury in Game 5.
Dallas also got back its second-leading point scorer from the regular season, Jason Robertson, who had missed the first-round win against the Avalanche with a knee injury.
Both teams were missing their top defensemen: the Stars’ Miro Heiskanen (knee) and the Jets’ Josh Morrissey (upper body).
–Field Level Media
