Thirteen days and 13 periods after it began, Mikko Rantanen‘s record-busting scoring streak came to an end Sunday afternoon. But whether you were among the 18,532 at American Airlines Center on Sunday afternoon or just enjoying the show at home, it would be hard to even think that was what you just witnessed when the Stars disposed of the Winnipeg Jets 5-2 in Game 3 of this second-round series.
It was a heck of a Mother’s Day celebration for the home crowd because just about every day around here is Mikko’s Day.
“It’s the best performance I‘ve got to witness, standing where I‘m standing with a guy on my team, for this extended period,’’ Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “But, you know for me, he’s just getting started. He’s just warming up here. I think he’s on a mission.’’
If DeBoer’s correct, I‘m not sure you want to start laying out the parade route just yet, but you can pencil in the Jets as another Presidents’ Trophy team in real trouble. The Stars took a 2-1 lead in this series and Rantanen — despite not being part of Dallas’ second goal Sunday, the one that ended his streak of scoring or assisting on goals at 13 — still skated off the ice as the first star after a goal and two assists. That’s nine goals and nine assists to lead the league, and it’s 17 points in six games, including one in which Dallas was shut out.
Rantanen’s goal was the biggest in the game if not the most controversial. First came his pass to set up defenseman Alexander Petrovic with the rare goal that turned out to be the game winner, the first of three Dallas goals in the final period. But it took a video review of roughly seven minutes to determine that while Petrovic had turned his skate (a kicking motion) to send the puck toward the net, Connor Hellebuyck had made a play on the puck to allow the goal to stand.
Whether Hellebuyck was really making a play or it just happened to nick his stick as he was flailing mattered a lot in that moment. It mattered a lot less 49 seconds later when Rantanen entered the offensive zone, put moves on both Jets defensemen (Dylan Samberg and Neal Pionk) before firing past Hellebuyck for a 4-2 lead.
Rantanen thanked the video delay for his goal. “I guess everybody got some rest, you know, and we were fresh after that,’’ he said.
He declined to enter into a lengthy discourse on how he’s the hottest hockey player on the planet, one who is rewriting the Stanley Cup record book. Scoring or assisting on 13 straight goals broke the great Mario Lemieux’s record of nine. This is his fifth game of three or more points in the last six. He has raised his career scoring average above 1.3 points per playoff game to fourth among active players, a list that includes Edmonton’s megastars, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, along with Mikko’s longtime linemate in Colorado, Nathan MacKinnon.
And the Avs thought MacKinnon was the one carrying Rantanen.
The victory continued the Stars’ habit — a really important habit to maintain, by the way — of not losing consecutive postseason games. They only had to beat Colorado in back-to-back games once to win their first-round series, and Dallas managed it by winning Games 2 and 3 in overtime. If they win all the odd games in this series, the Stars will add another Game 7 notch in DeBoer’s belt, but maybe there’s an easier way.
The really vital thing Dallas achieved Sunday was their late-afternoon deconstruction of Hellebuyck. No one has a sufficient explanation for why the game’s best regular-season goaltender year after year has never been a consequential netminder in the playoffs. Beyond that, he was downright awful in the opening round in all three games at St. Louis, surrendering 16 goals on 64 shots and getting pulled in each road game.
He made it to the finish line Sunday (not counting three minutes of “pulled goalie” time) but still surrendered five goals. His postseason road record of 0-4 in which he gives up a minimum of five goals each game lives for another two days. If you’re telling me that’s not in some Winnipeg heads at this moment, I‘m telling you that you’re wrong. Goalies are quirky, even great ones, and Hellebuyck’s lack of any postseason history, even for a good team trying to create some, is a legitimate issue.
For the Stars, Roope Hintz got his fifth goal of the postseason, Wyatt Johnston tossed in his fourth, two defensemen put pucks in the net (by any means necessary), and so the Mikko Show had some legitimate co-stars Sunday afternoon.
Keep that up Tuesday night, and the Jets will need an even longer victory streak against Dallas than anyone has come close to supplying so far, just to have a chance.
X: @TimCowlishaw
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