For nearly two and a half periods, the Avalanche had put up a defensive wall. Rantanen busted it down with two individual efforts.

Mikko Rantanen had a hat trick and added an assist to help the Dallas Stars rally for a 4-2 win against his former team, the visiting Colorado Avalanche, in Game 7 of their first-round series on Saturday.

And to think, there was about a week there where the entire hockey world was wondering if Mikko Rantanen was going to show up in this series. Rantanen scored three third-period goals — two Herculean solo efforts and an empty-netter — to erase a two-goal deficit,