The first of our two first-round Game 7s went down on Saturday night. Before the Winnipeg Jets and St. Louis Blues tangle on Sunday, the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche faced off. The game was a thrilling affair, with veteran superstar Mikko Rantanen making the most significant impact.
Rantanen scored a hat trick in the third period of Saturday night’s game. His performance capped off a three-game stretch in which the Stars forward scored 11 points. Moreover, his effort helped Dallas eliminate the Avalanche in Game 7.
The 2024-25 season has been a whirlwind for Rantanen. The Avalanche stunningly traded the superstar winger to the Carolina Hurricanes in mid-January. However, Carolina flipped him to the Stars at the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline. After Game 7, Rantanen had a chance to discuss his feelings about unexpectedly being on the other side of this matchup.
“Obviously, things happened not the way I expected to happen [with Colorado], but it’s business, like I’ve said many times,” Rantanen said, via NHL.com’s Nicholas J. Cotsonika. “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.”
Stars Coach Discusses Rantanen’s Impact vs. Avalanche
Rantanen has been a game-breaking talent for a few years now. Western Conference teams such as the Stars had to watch the superstar winger score goal after goal for the Avalanche. Now, Dallas head coach Pete DeBoer has Rantanen at his disposal. And the impact he has made was evident for all to see.
“Let’s be honest,” DeBoer said, via Cotsonika. “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.”
Avalanche Come to Terms With Stunning Loss
For much of Game 7, it appeared as if Colorado would emerge victorious. They took a 2-0 lead and seemed to have the better of Dallas. As the game approached the midway mark of the final frame, the Avalanche were firmly in the driver’s seat.
Then, the dam broke. Rantanen scored two goals to tie Game 7 in the third. With a little less than four minutes to go, youngster Wyatt Johnston scored to make it a 3-2 contest. In the dying embers, Rantanen potted an empty-netter to complete a hat trick.
Following the game, some Avalanche players addressed this loss to the Stars. The overarching theme was one of shock. They could not believe how the game slipped away from them.
“It’s pretty shocking,” Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon said, via Cotsonika. “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.”
The Avalanche are heading home to prepare for the offseason ahead. Meanwhile, the Stars will take on either the Jets or Blues in the second round. Dallas finds out which team they will face on Sunday night.
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Stars’ Mikko Rantanen Says He’s ‘Happy’ After Eliminating Avalanche appeared first on Heavy Sports.