Colorado Avalanche star forward Mikko Rantanen had a goal and two assists as Colorado rallied from two goals down to win at home against Calgary.
Finnish Star Mikko Rantanen broke his nearly three-week goalless streak in the hockey league NHL, when the Colorado Avalanche rose from a 3-5 loss position to a 6-5 victory over the Calgary Flames. Rantanen played a decisive role in the home team’s Colorado game, as he scored a 5-5 equalizer in the 54th minute.
Rantanen also recorded two assists: in the second set he assisted Colorado’s 2–1 goal and in the final set by Nathan MacKinnon completed the 6–5 winning goal.
In total, Rantanen has scored 13 goals and 21 assists this season.
Rantanen revealed after the match that the criticism of the father of a Finnish NHL player had hurt his feelings.
– The game was good. In fact, I got more energy from the fact that the father of one of the Finnish NHL players talked shit about me in the media, that I hadn’t trained last summer like in previous years. He made things up in his head. This game was for him. Talking shit backfires, Rantanen said.
Rantanen referred to an article published by Urheilu on Monday, in which an expert Ismo Lehkonen speculates on what could be the cause of Rantanen’s nine-match scoreless streak.
– Could it be that Miko has hit a wall for a while. He didn’t have a very good summer. There was a lot of cross-dressing, we had to be in Helsinki and other things. He must have consciously driven the plane down after difficult years, but maybe sports were not done in quite the same way as before, Lehkonen stated.
According to Lehkonen, Rantanen’s game has started showing frustration and pain.
– It’s a bit of coercion.
Lehkonen also stated that Colorado’s identity has been missing recently. With Calgary’s victory, Colorado rose to fourth in the NHL’s Western Conference.
Lehkonen’s son Artturi Lehkonen plays for Colorado but has been sidelined with injury.
Tonight’s NHL results
Colorado – Calgary 6–5 (Colorado: Rantanen 1+2)
Dallas – Detroit 6–3 (Dallas: Heiskanen 2+1, Lindell 1+1, Hintz 0+2, Hakanpää 0+1, Detroit: Määttä 0+1)
NY Islanders – Toronto 4–3 and.
Buffalo – Arizona 5–2 (Arizona: Maccelli 0+1)