Mikko Rantanen of Nousiainen, Finland recorded his second National Hockey League hat trick on Saturday. Rantanen scored thrice in the Colorado Avalanche’s 5-2 win over the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ.
Rantanen opened the scoring with a goal at 11:23 of the second period from Nathan MacKinnon of Halifax, Nova Scotia and Samuel Girard of Roberval, Quebec. Rantanen then scored the game winning goal for the Avalanche at the eight second mark of the third period from Cale Makar of Calgary, Alberta and MacKinnon, which put the Avalanche up 3-0. Rantanen then scored the final goal of the game into an empty net from Girard and Ian Cole of Ann Arbor, MI.
Rantanen was one of five Avalanche players to record a multi-point game in the three goal win. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare of Le Blanc-Mesnil, France and Cole each had one goal and one assist for two points, while Girard and MacKinnon had two assists each.
Rantanen’s first career hat trick came on February 7, 2017 in a 4-0 Avalanche win over the Montreal Canadiens. In the Avalanche win over the Devils, Rantanen was perfect as he scored all three of his goals on three shots and had two faceoff wins.
In 2019-20, Rantanen has already tied a career high with four game winning goals. In addition to the game on Saturday, Rantanen scored the game winning goal in the Avalanche’s 5-3 win over the Calgary Flames on October 3, in Colorado’s 6-2 win over the Washington Capitals on October 14 and in Colorado’s 3-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on December 11.
In 26 games with Colorado in 2019-20, Rantanen has 15 goals and 16 assists. He is a -3 with four penalty minutes, nine power play points, 68 shots on goal, 20 faceoff wins, 13 blocked shots, 18 hits, 26 takeaways and 10 giveaways.
Colorado is currently second in the Central Division and five points back of the first place St. Louis Blues. They have a record of 25 wins, 13 regulation losses and four losses in extra time for 54 points.
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