Dallas Stars centre Mikael Granlund of Oulu, Finland recorded his first National Hockey League Stanley Cup Playoff hat trick on Tuesday. He accomplished the feat in a 3-1 Stars win over the Winnipeg Jets in game four of the Western Conference second round playoff series from the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. With the win, the Stars lead the best out of seven series three games to one.
Inside look at the hat trick
Granlund scored one goal in each period and scored all three goals for the Stars in the game. He opened the scoring at 8:36 of the first period on the power-play. Defenseman Thomas Harley of Syracuse, New York and Jason Robertson of Arcadia, California had the assists. Granlund then scored the game-winning goal with two minutes and eight seconds left in the second period to break a 1-1 deadlock. Fellow Finn Mikko Rantanen of Nousiainen, Finland had the lone assist. It has been quite the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoff for Rantanen. He leads all players in the playoffs in goals (nine), and points (19). Then, at 7:23 of the third period, Granlund closed out the scoring from defenseman Miro Heiskanen of Espoo, Finland and Matt Duchene of Haliburton, Ontario on the power-play. For Heiskanen, this was his first game of the 2025 NHL Playoffs. He had not played since January 28 because of a knee injury.
Granlund’s two prior hat tricks
Granlund’s previous two NHL hat tricks were with the Minnesota Wild. His first NHL regular season hat trick came on February 4, 2017 in a 6-3 Wild win over the Vancouver Canucks, and the second NHL regular season hat trick came on December 29, 2017 in a 4-2 Wild win over the Nashville Predators.
One of three teams up 3-1
The Stars are one of three teams up 3-1 in the second round. They are joined by the Carolina Hurricanes ad the Edmonton Oilers. The Toronto Maple Leafs and Florida Panthers are tied at two games apiece.
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