Mikael Granlund gets 1st career
playoff hat trick as Stars beat top-seeded Jets for 3-1 series lead
[May 14, 2025]
By STEPHEN HAWKINS
DALLAS (AP) — Mikael Granlund had his first career playoff hat
trick, Jake Oettinger stopped 31 shots and the Dallas Stars beat
Winnipeg 3-1 on Tuesday night, taking a 3-1 series lead over the
top-seeded Jets in the second round of the Western Conference
playoffs.
Mikko Rantanen, upped his NHL-leading playoff total to 19 points
(nine goals) with the primary assist on Granlund's second goal that
broke a 1-1 tie with 2:08 left in the second period and put the
Stars ahead to stay.
Granlund did a double fist pump from his knees, then popped up to
his skates after his third goal, his fourth in these playoffs, on a
power play with 12:37 left in the game. The 33-year-old forward had
scored multiple goals only one time in his previous 69 playoff
games, for Minnesota in 2014.
“What he does on the ice is one thing, but the guy oozes
leadership,” coach Pete DeBoer said. “Our Finnish group there, he's
is kind of the elder statesman of that group."
Dallas acquired Granlund and Rantanen, both forwards from Finland,
through trades during the season.
“Obviously Mikko, he’s been playing in such an incredible level and
I’m sure he’s going to keep doing that. But obviously we need some
help and, and hopefully that in the next game it might be someone
else," Grandlund said. “But all that matters is trying to get these
wins.”
Game 5 is at Winnipeg on Thursday, when the Stars will have their
first chance to advance to the West final for the third year in a
row.
Nikolaj Ehlers scored for the Jets, who have lost all five of their
road games this postseason.
The primary assist on the third Granlund goal came from another
fellow Finnish player, Miro Heiskanen, the standout defenseman in
the lineup for the first time since Jan. 28 after missing the last
32 regular-season games and first 10 playoff games because of a knee
injury.
That came soon after Oettinger's kick save on Kyle Connor's
short-handed attempt in the first half of a double-minor penalty
against Haydn Fleury. Granlund scored just before the end of the
four-minute penalty.
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Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck (37) cotrols the puck and
as Haydn Fleury (24) moves in to take control in the first period of
Game 4 of a second-round NHL hockey playoff series against the
Dallas Stars in Dallas, Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Gareth
Patterson)
Granlund got his first goal after skating down the
middle over both blue lines, and a nifty move around Brandon Tanev
near mid-ice, before snapping a 38-foot shot past Connor Hellebuyck
for a 1-0 lead just 8 1/2 minutes into the game.
Hellebuyck, who stopped 21 shots, has now lost nine consecutive
playoff road games since winning Game 1 at Vegas in 2023, before the
Golden Knights won four in a row. The two-time Vezina Trophy winner,
and the odds-on favorite to win the top goalie award again this
season, has allowed 24 goals in the five road losses in these
playoffs.
“I leave it all out there every night. I’m doing my best,”
Hellebuyck said. “Sometimes it’s a heartbreak, but all it takes is
one little change, one little bounce and things can start going our
way.”
The Jets began the second period with a minute left on a power play
and Dallas technically killed the tripping penalty. But Ehlers
scored from a severe angle, his shot from the bottom of the circle
to the left of Oettinger going under the goalie’s legs and
ricocheting into the net while Tyler Seguin was coming out of the
box.
“I thought we played a good hockey game. We had 70 shot attempts and
scored one goal,” Jets coach Scott Arniel said. “If we can’t find
more than one goal, we’re not going to win hockey games, especially
against this hockey team. I liked a lot of what we did 5 on 5.”
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