CALGARY, Alberta — — Mikko Polo.
Mikko Rantanen is the Marco Polo to Avalanche opponents. It takes guesswork to anticipate when and where he’s going to beat you. This is no neighborhood water game, but the Avs use Rantanen to hide in relative obscurity before he attacks.
One shift he’s the right winger on the second line with center Carl Soderberg and Colin Wilson. And the next shift he’s the right winger with fellow NHL all-stars Nathan MacKinnon and Gabe Landeskog — aka the MGM Line. He’s also dropped to the third and fourth lines at times.
The MGM guys are a feared threesome throughout the league, arguably the best in the NHL. They prefer playing together — and always are on the power play — but they recognize the team is better balanced at even strength when the 6-foot-4, 218-pound Rantanen is used as a floater.
“I don’t mind it. I know both lines really good,” Rantanen said before Game 5 on Friday, when he produced his fourth consecutive multi-point game in just his fifth game back from an eight-game injury absence to lead the Avs to a series-clinching 5-1 victory at Calgary. “I know Carl and Willie really, really well. And I obviously know Landy and Nate really well. It’s good for the team, hard for the opposing team. It gives us some options.”
In Game 4 against the Flames, Rantanen scored the game-tying goal on the power play, off an assist from MacKinnon. And then in overtime, Rantanen won it with a goal off a feed from Soderberg.
When Colorado clinched the series in Game 5, Rantanen had his fourth consecutive multi-point game — becoming the first Avalanche player to do so in the playoffs since Peter Forsberg and Joe Sakic in 2002 — by scoring with the Soderberg line, assisting on a Wilson goal and scoring a power-play goal with the MGM guys.
Rantanen finished the series with a team-high nine points and five goals, and stands third in league playoff scoring behind Vegas teammates Mark Stone and Max Pacioretty (both with 10). Rantanen is second behind Stone (six) in playoff goals.
The Avs would be hosting Game 6 on Sunday in Denver if Rantanen hadn’t scored the game-tying and game-winning in Game 4’s 3-2 overtime win. The same could be said for his two-goal, three-point night on Friday when Colorado punched its ticket to the second round for the first time since 2008.
Calgary’s Norris Trophy-worthy defenseman Mark Giordano said MacKinnon might be the world’s best player — and definitely the best in the playoffs — but Rantanen would probably get the nod as Colorado’s MVP in the first-round upset of the Flames.
![Former Colorado women’s basketball player Shelomi Sanders has found a new home. On Thursday night, Sanders announced that she is transferring to Alabama A&M. A walk-on with the Buffaloes the past year and a half, and the daughter of CU head football coach Deion Sanders, Shelomi put her name in the transfer portal earlier this month. For Shelomi, it will be a return to the Southwestern Athletic Conference. She began her career as a walk-on at perennial SWAC power Jackson State – where her father was the head football coach – in the fall of 2022. When her father was […]](https://www.dailycamera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BUF-L-CUWTa153.jpg?w=504 "Former Colorado women’s basketball player Shelomi Sanders has found a new home. On Thursday night, Sanders announced that she is transferring to Alabama A&M. A walk-on with the Buffaloes the past year and a half, and the daughter of CU head football coach Deion Sanders, Shelomi put her name in the transfer portal earlier this month. For Shelomi, it will be a return to the Southwestern Athletic Conference. She began her career as a walk-on at perennial SWAC power Jackson State – where her father was the head football coach – in the fall of 2022. When her father was […]")
