Mikko Rantanen is on a history-making tear. The Florida Panthers need a history-making comeback.<\/p>\n
The Toronto Maple Leafs will seek a 3-0 lead in their Eastern Conference semifinal series against the defending Stanley Cup champion Panthers on Friday night, while Rantanen \u2014 on a scoring roll the likes of which hockey hasn\u2019t seen in generations \u2014 will lead the Dallas Stars into Game 2 of their Western Conference semifinal series against the Winnipeg Jets.<\/p>\n
Florida lost a pair of one-goal games at Toronto to open their series, which resumes on the Panthers\u2019 home ice for Game 3 on Friday.<\/p>\n
History says the Panthers are in big trouble: Toronto has won all 11 of its previous best-of-seven series when taking a 2-0 lead at home, Florida is 0-5 all-time in series where it dropped both Games 1 and 2, and leaguewide, teams facing 0-2 deficits come back to win those series only about 14% of the time.<\/p>\n
There are no magic words to say now, Panthers coach Paul Maurice said Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there was, you would have said it two games ago, right? We\u2019re not holding back any gems,\u201d Maurice said. \u201cThat\u2019s probably the most important thing that you realize. We went on the road and lost two one-goal games. Our game\u2019s not perfect. Neither is theirs. So, you\u2019re looking for an adjustment to foundation more than an adjustment to something unusual.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over in the West, where Dallas stuck first in Winnipeg with a 3-2 win, Rantanen is indeed doing something unusual \u2014 lots of things that are unusual, actually.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s the third player in NHL playoff history to have a hat trick in back-to-back games: Jari Kurri for Edmonton in 1985 and Doug Bentley for Chicago in 1944 are the others. He\u2019s had a hand in each of Dallas\u2019 last 12 goals, a streak unmatched by any player on any team in playoff history. He\u2019s the first player in playoff history with at least eight goals and six assists in a four-game span. The first player with two three-goal periods in the same postseason. And on, and on, and on.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s see how long he can run this for,\u201d Dallas coach Peter DeBoer said. \u201cHe\u2019s rolling. He\u2019s feeling it. Pretty impressive, what he\u2019s doing. I mean, considering the opponent and the time of year and how he\u2019s dominating games, really impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Toronto Maple Leafs at Florida Panthers<\/p>\n
When\/Where to Watch: Game 3, Friday, 7 p.m. EDT (TNT\/truTV\/Max)<\/p>\n
Series: Maple Leafs lead 2-0<\/p>\n
If losing a pair of one-goal playoff games wasn\u2019t bad enough \u2014 5-4 in Game 1, 4-3 in Game 2 \u2014 the Panthers can look at two goals given up in those games and really lament how those scores factored into creating their current situation.<\/p>\n
In Game 1, Seth Jones scored to get Florida within 2-1 \u2014 and the Panthers gave up a goal to Morgan Rielly 19 seconds later. In Game 2, Anton Lundell scored early in the third to pull Florida into a 3-3 tie \u2014 only to have Mitch Marner score what became the game-winner 17 seconds later.<\/p>\n
The Leafs held serve at home, which is what they were supposed to do. Toronto became the first team to get to six wins in these playoffs and will be feeling very good about its game going into Game 3.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t change how we go about our day today,\u201d Panthers forward Sam Reinhart said Thursday before Florida hopped aboard its charter flight back home. \u201cIt\u2019s about recovering and putting the best foot forward to play our best game tomorrow night and get back in this thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dallas Stars at Winnipeg Jets<\/p>\n
When\/Where to Watch: Game 2, Friday, 9:30 p.m. EDT (TNT\/truTV\/Max)<\/p>\n
Series: Stars lead 1-0<\/p>\n
Playoff hockey is different. Every opponent at this time of year is obviously proven. But the Winnipeg Jets \u2014 who needed seven games and a Game 7 miracle to escape St. Louis in Round 1 \u2014 are right back into some hot water, in large part because they\u2019re giving up a lot of goals.<\/p>\n
The Jets have given up 26 goals in the last six games, after not giving up more than 20 in any six-game span of the regular season.<\/p>\n
Rantanen\u2019s hot streak is one thing, but Winnipeg\u2019s defense wasn\u2019t exactly airtight going back to Round 1 either. And while the Jets survived a Game 7 at home to get here, the last thing they need is to go back to Dallas in a 2-0 hole.<\/p>\n
That starts with doing more against Rantanen.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s just somebody that you always have to know when he\u2019s on the ice,\u201d Jets coach Scott Arniel said of facing Rantanen. \u201cWhenever you face elite players, you\u2019ve got to know where they are. And he\u2019s feeling it. We\u2019ve got to know when he\u2019s on the ice.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NHL playoffs: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/stanley-cup<\/a> and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nhl<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mikko Rantanen is on a history-making tear. The Florida Panthers need a history-making comeback. The Toronto Maple Leafs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5121],"tags":[245,147,19272,1280,62,57,5,78,270,533,885,4,292,804,2087,252,4227,259,43,14,104,31,1275,77,18,5288],"class_list":{"0":"post-103505","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-winnipeg-jets","8":"tag-anton-lundell","9":"tag-dallas-stars","10":"tag-doug-bentley","11":"tag-fl-state-wire","12":"tag-florida","13":"tag-florida-panthers","14":"tag-hockey","15":"tag-jets","16":"tag-mikko-rantanen","17":"tag-mitch-marner","18":"tag-morgan-rielly","19":"tag-nhl","20":"tag-nhl-hockey","21":"tag-paul-maurice","22":"tag-pete-deboer","23":"tag-sam-reinhart","24":"tag-scott-arniel","25":"tag-seth-jones","26":"tag-sports","27":"tag-stanley-cup","28":"tag-stanley-cup-playoffs","29":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs","30":"tag-tx-state-wire","31":"tag-winnipeg","32":"tag-winnipeg-jets","33":"tag-winnipegjets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/114777186866735911","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}