Don’t blame Mikko Rantanen if it seems like his postgame press conference had a Colorado Avalanche slant to it. A great deal of the questions directed to the Dallas Stars’ postseason hero had to do with his former team.
So, kindly, he obliged and reflected.
“I think it’s the first Game 7 I’ve ever won,” Rantanen said after the Stars bounced the Avalanche from the playoffs. “I don’t think we won one when I was in that room.”
Blame your coach, Mikko, because he took one from you six years back.
Thank him, too, because he got you your first.
Pete DeBoer’s kind of got a knack for it.
The Stars’ 4-2 win vs. the Avalanche on Saturday at American Airlines Center gave DeBoer a record-breaking ninth career Game 7 win as a head coach. At 9-0, with Game 7 wins with Dallas (three), the San Jose Sharks (three), the Vegas Golden Knights (two) and the New Jersey Devils (one), he broke a tie with two-time Stanley Cup champion Darryl Sutter (8-3) to stand alone in first place.
Florida Panthers head coach Paul Maurice, who is 5-0, has the second-most Game 7 wins without a loss on the ledger. DeBoer also passed Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Red Auerbach, who coached the Boston Celtics in the 1950s and 60s, for the most Game 7 wins without a loss among head coaches in the four major professional sports leagues. Auerbach went 8-0.
“It’s super impressive,” said Stars center Wyatt Johnston, who scored the go-ahead goal in Saturday’s win. “Game 7s seem to be pretty close to 50-50. For him to be able to come out on top of every single one he’s been in so far, it’s pretty cool. Happy we kept that streak going.”
DeBoer’s first Game 7 win came in 2012 when the Devils beat the Panthers in double overtime of a first-round winner-take-all game. His latest — which included a two-goal deficit in the third period and four scores in the game’s final eight minutes to win — came under unique circumstances.
Well, actually, maybe not. DeBoer’s Sharks overcame a three-goal deficit against the Golden Knights in 2019 to win Game 7 of a first-round series. They beat Rantanen’s Avalanche in Game 7 of the next series.
“The fact that I’ve won two Game 7s, the fact that I’ve been a part of two Game 7s on the right side of that type of game,” DeBoer said, “it’s crazy. Memories for a lifetime.”
Hey, when you win nine, patterns emerge. Like, say, the fact that seven of DeBoer’s Game 7 wins have come at home. Each of his three with the Stars — vs. the Seattle Kraken in 2023, the Golden Knights in 2024 and the Avalanche this year — happened at American Airlines Center.
“I’ve talked about the importance of Game 7s at home and the home crowd and the energy they bring,” DeBoer said. “I don’t believe we win that game if we’re not playing at American Airlines in front of the Dallas fans.”
Or without him on the bench.
