Stars forward had 6 points in 5 games, replaced by Kapanen
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Mikko Rantanen did not play for Team Finland against Team Slovakia in the bronze medal game at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 on Saturday because of a lower-body injury.
Finland won 6-1.
The forward had six points (two goals, four assists) in five tournament games. Rantanen scored a power-play goal Friday in a 3-2 semifinal loss to Team Canada.
“You don’t want to see anybody go down, especially a guy like that,” said Finland defenseman Miro Heiskanen, who plays with Rantanen on the Dallas Stars. “He’s a huge part of this team and a huge part of the Dallas Stars. It’s not fun to see that, but at the same time we have to focus on the game and we have a lot of great players here and we just stayed together and tried to do our best.”
Rantanen, who won his first Olympic medal, leads the Stars with 69 points (20 goals, 49 assists) in 54 games. He won gold with Finland at the 2016 World Junior Championship and silver at the 2016 World Championship.
“He’s a huge player for us,” Finland forward Eetu Luostarinen said. “Obviously [stunk] for him to miss the game, but that’s hockey. I think this morning we found out, but obviously we have a great team and a lot of guys that can fill in, so it was a good win.”
Montreal Canadiens forward Oliver Kapanen took Rantanen’s place in Finland’s lineup and was plus-1 with one shot on goal in 16:23 of ice time.
The Stars (34-14-9) play their first game after the Olympic break on Wednesday against the Seattle Kraken.
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