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There was a time during Game 6 when it felt like the Avalanche were going to let the game, and their season, slip away. After leading 2-0 and 3-2, the Dallas Stars tied the game up at 3-3 before the second period was over.
And with 1:25 remaining in that frame, Mikko Rantanen beat Mackenzie Blackwood off the rush to give Dallas its first lead of the game. They had the Avs on the brink of elimination with 20 minutes to play because of a goal from the very player Colorado traded in January. The nightmare scenario was playing out. It felt like the end was near.
“We’ve had some teams where we get in games, we want it so bad that we freeze up a little bit, and we’re really trying hard not to do that this year,” head coach Jared Bednar said. “No matter what the stakes, you go and give it everything you got, and hopefully you get your result, and you fight right to the bitter end.”
That’s what they were able to do. Valeri Nichushkin scored to tie it, Nathan MacKinnon was credited with the eventual game-winner off a flukey bounce, then Josh Manson and Cale Makar added empty netters to put the game away.
Game 7, Saturday, at American Airlines Center. The Avalanche live to fight another day will go into it with everything on the line.
“Our guys are pretty clear on what they’re supposed to do, what we want them to do, and just how hard it’s going to be,” Bednar said. “Hopefully Dallas is bringing the best out in us.”
The reality is, the Dallas Stars are known to bring out the best in the Avs. But the best hasn’t been good enough in the past. And now, with Rantanen at the other end, the odds get more stacked in Dallas’ favor. Not only is Colorado facing elimination for the third time in six seasons against the same team, but they’re doing it with one of their best playoff performers suiting up for the opposition.
The same player who nearly ended their season at Ball Arena in Game 6. Rantanen had three assists earlier in the period before notching a go-ahead goal.
“You’re never going to hear me say a bad word about Mikko Rantanen,” Bednar said. “I mean, you look at what he did for us, for the length of time I was here, and he was part of the 2022 championship team. You’re just never going to hear me say something bad about him.”
Among the things Rantanen did for the Avs was show up when their backs were against the wall. Rantanen’s 2022 postseason was great on paper, but in reality, he didn’t score big goals and wasn’t as effective as Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Gabriel Landeskog, or even Nazem Kadri. But the Avs never once faced elimination on their way to the Stanley Cup.
There’s something to be said about players who show up when the opposition has three wins. Rantanen is historically one of those players.
Last year, when the Avs lost 2-1 in double overtime to this same Stars team, Rantanen had the lone Colorado goal.
In 2023, when the Seattle Kraken defeated the Avalanche 2-1 in Game 7, Rantanen, again, had the only goal for the Avs.
In 2021, Pete DeBoer’s Vegas Golden Knights eliminated the Avs in six games, using a big third period to win 6-3. But Rantanen tied the game up at 2-2 in the second period when the Avs were being outplayed.
Basically, Colorado has five total goals in the last three series defeats. Rantanen has three of those goals.
It doesn’t stop there.
In 2020, the Avalanche trailed 3-1 in their series with Dallas. Over the next three games, Rantanen had two goals and two assists before the Avalanche lost in Game 7 OT.
He did it time and time again. When the opposition has three wins and is looking for a closeout victory, he shows up for Colorado. And not just in losses. Rantanen had a big assist in Game 5 vs Dallas last year to stave off elimination. He also helped them escape Game 6 in Seattle in 2023 — in that game, Colorado trailed 1-0 before Rantanen scored to tie it up and then eventually recorded the primary assist on the game-winning goal. Colorado won 4-1.
What he did for Dallas in Game 6 was different. He was producing in a game where his team had the chance to advance. But with Game 7 coming up, and both teams with their backs against the wall, you can expect Rantanen to try his best, again, to eliminate the team that traded him 99 days before the final buzzer sounds in the winner-take-all battle.
“Look at the night he had last night. Biggest stage, elimination game, comes out and gets four points in one period and almost puts us away and we were able to bounce back,” Bednar said. “That’s how I view Mikko.”
The pressure for Colorado to win this game is compacted into so many different storylines that it’s almost hard to keep track of.
The Rantanen effect is one of them. As is the nightmare of losing to the same team three different times in short order.
But Bednar is probably also feeling the pressure. He’s in his fourth head-to-head series against DeBoer and has not yet beaten him. DeBoer, by the way, is also 8-0 in Game 7s throughout his NHL coaching career.
Bednar is 0-3. And that includes a loss to DeBoer’s San Jose Sharks in 2019.
“Honestly, Jared Bednar and I are not going to have a big impact on this game,” DeBoer said. “The players are going to decide that. Both teams know each other. It’s who goes out and executes and gets big games from the right guys.”
If the Avalanche’s bench boss is right. If this team has found a way to remain composed, then Game 7 should, and could be their opportunity to rewrite the narrative. It could be their chance to overcome it all.
It would prove that Bednar could beat DeBoer.
That this core can win a Game 7.
That trading Rantanen was not the wrong decision.
That going all in at the trade deadline was worthwhile.
That playing in a hostile environment in Game 7 won’t shake them.
And most importantly, that defeating the Dallas Stars is possible. Especially in a Game 7.
For all this to be achieved, the performance on Saturday needs to be better than the one in Dallas last Monday. If the Avs let in a bad first goal and a deflating second goal, they have to find a way to come out in the second period and fight back. Do what Rantanen and the Stars did in Game 6 and keep yourself in the game. As Bednar said, fight until the bitter end.
If, even for a second, they allow the moment to get too big. If they feel the pressure of letting a game slip away, it’ll all be over. They didn’t do it in Game 6, and the message is clear for it not to happen again in Game 7.
“Stay in the moment and keep doing what you’re doing, whether things are going good or bad,” Bednar said.
Nichushkin’s Breakthrough was Just What the Avs Needed
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