Rantanen carries Stars with 2nd straight hat trick in Game 1 - ESPN
Mikko Rantanen set a pair of NHL records on Wednesday night, when his natural hat trick was the difference in the Dallas Stars' 3-2 Game 1 win at the Winnipeg Jets.
The Stars winger scored three goals in a 7-minute, 55-second span in the second period. It was his second straight game with a hat trick, having scored three goals in the third period of the Stars' Game 7 win over the Colorado Avalanche last Saturday.
«Sometimes it's ups and downs in hockey. Now, it's going well individually and as a team,» said Rantanen, who leads the playoffs in goals (8) and points (15).
Rantanen is the first player in Stanley Cup Playoffs history with multiple three-goal periods in the same postseason. He is only the fourth player in NHL history to pull the feat at any point in his career, joining Wayne Gretzky, Maurice Richard and Tim Kerr.
Rantanen also set an NHL postseason record for having a goal or an assist on 12 straight goals by his team. That streak began with an assist on Roope Hintz's empty netter in the Stars' Game 5 win over the Avalanche. Rantanen had one goal and three assists in Game 6 against Colorado, and then three goals and an assist in Game 7.
Rantanen broke a record previously set by Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1992.
«Let's see how long he can run this for. He's rolling. He's feeling it,» Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. «Considering the opponent and the time of year, how he's dominating games is pretty impressive.»
Winnipeg was up 1-0 in the second period when Evgenii Dadonov blasted a one-timer on Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck. The puck got through Hellebuyck and sat in the Jets' crease, where Rantanen lunged with his stick while falling down to poke it into the net for a 1-1 game at 8:43.
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