It wasn’t a handshake line at the end of this remarkable seven-game series for Mikko Rantanen. It was a hug line.

Mikko Rantanen made sure the Colorado Avalanche missed him in Game 7 of their first-round series against the Dallas Stars in the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs. Rantanen scored a third-period hat trick against his former team to lead the Stars to the second round with a 4-2 comeback win on Saturday night.

In Game 6, Rantanen and Roope Hintz made NHL history by becoming the first teammates to score four points in a single period. But that was a footnote in Colorado’s 7-4 win that made Saturday’s Game 7 necessary. So Rantanen sent one better with a hat trick in the final 13 minutes of the game.