Mikko Rantanen has reiterated for weeks that the individual achievements don’t matter to him. Not true, said Jared Bednar. The Colorado Avalanche coach noticed Rantanen has been “squeezing his stick a little tight” in recent games.
The chances kept piling up, but the results weren’t as frequent.
“You’re going to think about it It’s human nature,” Bednar said last Saturday after Rantanen scored his 49th goal. “You’re at 48. You’re not thinking about it when you’re maybe at 40, 39. … I don’t want him to have it in his head. But I think now he can taste it.”
Once he finally got it, there was no looking back.
With a game-tying goal in the first period of a 6-2 win over the San Jose Sharks, Rantanen became the Avalanche’s first 50-goal scorer in a season since Milan Hejduk in 2002-03. Then Rantanen scored twice more by the halfway point of the second period, becoming the first Avs player ever with three hat tricks in a season.
Impeccable timing: Hejduk scored his 50th and final goal of his landmark season on April 6, 2003 — 20 years to the day before Rantanen matched him then quickly passed him.
Rantanen is the fifth player in Avalanche/Nordiques franchise history to score 50 goals in a season, joining Michel Goulet, Joe Sakic, Jacques Richard and Hejduk. This is the ninth 50-goal season in franchise history and the fourth since the team moved to Denver in 1995. Sakic did it in 1995-96 and 2000-01.
Century mark times two? Rantanen’s hat trick gave him the NHL lead in even strength goals with 41 this season. His four-point night also inched him closer to joining Nathan MacKinnon in the Avalanche’s 100-point club. Rantanen is up to 98 with five games remaining. MacKinnon reached the milestone for the first time in his career Tuesday night, becoming the first Avs player with a 100-point season since Sakic in 2006-07.
By assisting all three of Rantanen’s goals and scoring one of his own, MacKinnon climbed to 104 points. The last time the Avs had two 100-point individuals in the same season was their inaugural season in Colorado (1995-96).
Sakic owns the Avalanche’s single-season goals record with 54 in 2000-01. The franchise’s all-time leader is Goulet, who had seasons with 57, 56 and 55 goals in Quebec City. Rantanen is on pace to finish with 55.4 goals if he plays every remaining game.
“It’s just a number,” Rantanen told Altitude TV in an interview at first intermission.
Trending upward in the Central: The team also reached 100 points with the win, staying tied with Dallas atop the division (with a game in hand). The Stars beat the Philadelphia Flyers while Minnesota lost in Pittsburgh, falling two points behind.
Lost amid the ongoing theme of Colorado’s top-heavy roster was a boost from its depth. Ben Meyers, long overdue, scored twice to break a 31-game drought since his last goal. It was a good night for the rookie out of Minnesota, as his alma mater Golden Gophers won in the Frozen Four to reach the NCAA Championship against Quinnipiac.
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