Mikko Rantanen's OT Hat Trick Lifts Stars Past Bruins

Mikko Rantanen scored on a power play at 3:52 of overtime to finish a hat trick, and the Dallas Stars beat the Boston Bruins 3-2 on Tuesday night to snap Boston's five-game winning streak.

Rantanen scored all three Dallas goals, and two of them erased Boston leads. It was his 11th career three-goal game and his first in the regular season since the Stars traded for him during the 2024-25 season, per The Associated Press. He is the fourth Stars player with an overtime hat trick since the franchise moved to Dallas for the 1993-94 season.

How Mikko Rantanen kept answering

Boston struck first when Matthew Poitras scored 2:09 into the game. Rantanen tied it 1-1 at 2:50 of the second period off a Jason Robertson assist, per the ESPN scoring summary. James Hagens put the Bruins back in front at 7:30 of the second.

The tying goal in the third was a lucky bounce that Rantanen was ready for. Roope Hintz had a shot from in close deflect off the leg of Boston's Charlie McAvoy, and the puck went right to Rantanen, who poked it past Jeremy Swayman with 6:22 left in regulation.

If you watch one replay, watch him sit in that spot and wait for the puck to find him.

Swayman nearly stole overtime

Before the winner, Swayman stopped Wyatt Johnston on two breakaways 10 seconds apart in overtime. Then Dallas went to the power play, and Rantanen did some nifty stick work in close and beat Swayman over the left shoulder, per AP. Robertson and Miro Heiskanen assisted.

Swayman finished with 22 saves. Jake Oettinger stopped 18 shots for Dallas.

Bruins fans can be annoyed at the result and still be impressed with that double breakaway save.

Dallas keeps choking off power plays

Boston went 0 for 4 on the power play. Dallas came in allowing an NHL-best 1.5 goals per game with the fourth-best penalty kill, and the Stars have allowed one power-play goal on opponents' last 25 chances, per AP.

The win was the third straight for Dallas, now 5-3-1. Boston, at 7-2-1, finished its Western Conference trip 3-0-1.

For Stars fans, a stingy penalty kill plus Rantanen heating up is a pretty good combination in October.

What's next

The Stars host the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday. The Bruins host the Nashville Predators on Thursday.

Rantanen had six shots and 5:24 of power-play time in 22:12, per the box score, and now has five goals on the season, so he is the Star to start against Winnipeg on Thursday.