Mikko Rantanen continued his scorching postseason form on Wednesday night, recording a second-period natural hat trick to lead the Dallas Stars to a 3-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets in Game 1 of the Western Conference Second Round.
Rantanen became the first NHL player to score hat tricks in consecutive playoff games since Jari Kurri in 1985.
“Mikko Rantanen became the first player in nearly 40 years with a hat trick in consecutive playoff games and third in NHL history, following Jari Kurri (Game 5-6 of 1985 CF) and Doug Bentley (Game 4-5 of 1944 SF),” the NHL noted.
“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.”
Mikko Rantanen scored a hat trick in his second consecutive contest after also doing so in #Game7 of the First Round. #StanleyCup
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The Jets struck first in Game 1 on a goal by Nino Niederreiter at 3:30 of the second period, but Rantanen responded with three unanswered goals in under eight minutes to flip the game in Dallas favor.
Rantanen tied the game at 1-1 by jamming in a rebound at 8:43. He added his second goal under six minutes later, at 14:21, putting the Stars ahead. Rantanen then scored the final hat-trick goal at 16:38 of the same period in a power-play situation.
“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.”
The Jets had a quick reply to Rantanen’s scoring explosion with Mark Scheifele adding a goal to the scoreboard at 17:35, less than a minute after the Stars’ third goal arrived, but the scoreboard wouldn’t move after that.
“Let’s see how long he can run this for,” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. “Yeah, (Rantanen) is 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.”
Rantanen has a playoffs-leading 15 points, including 8 goals and 6 assists.
Game 2 between the Jets and the Stars is scheduled for Friday night in Winnipeg before the series shifts to Dallas for Games 3 and 4.
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