Mikko Rantanen’s hat-trick keeps Avs tied for first place in Central

Mikko Rantanen scored his third hat-trick of the season and added an assist for the Colorado Avalanche in Thursday’s 6-2 win over the San Jose Sharks.

Nathan McKinnon had a goal and three assists, Ben Myers scored two and Alexander Georgiev made 21 saves for Colorado (47-24-6, 100 points) to tie for first place in the Central Division with the Dallas Stars. I went back to

With two assists from Samuel Girard, the Avalanche have five games to go. The Stars have four games left.

Eric Carlson had the goals and assists for the Sharks to become just the sixth defenseman in NHL history to record at least 98 points in a season.

Stephen Lorenz also scored in San Jose (22-40-16, 60 points) and had a four-game scoring streak (3-0-1). Kaapo his Kakonen stopped 15 of his 19 shots before being replaced in 12 by James his Rymer, who had 10 saves.

The Sharks took a 1–0 lead at 15:43 of the first period when Carlsson backhanded the puck between Georgiev’s pads for his 23rd goal of the season.

Rantanen scored his 50th from a 1:02 rebound to tie the game at 1-1.

Rantanen joins Jari Kuli and Thiem Seranne as the only Finnish players to score 50 or more goals in an NHL season.

Rantanen didn’t stop there as the Avalanche forced a turnover and Evan Rodriguez gave Rantanen a one timer and a 2-1 lead at 2:32 of the second period.

McKinnon plowed his wrist shot through traffic into the net to make it 3-1 at 7:19 in the second. Rantanen also provided an assist on the goal.

Rantanen redirected McKinnon’s shot while positioned at the far post to complete his hat-trick and extend the lead to 4-1 at 8:06. He is just two points behind his first 100-point NHL season.

Rantanen is the first Avalanche player to score three hat-tricks in a season since the franchise moved to Denver prior to the 1995-96 season.

Rantanen didn’t enjoy the moment for long as Lorenz scored a goal 35 seconds later to cut it to 4-2.

Myers re-established the three-goal lead when he scored at 15:08 in the second to make it 5-2, then scored another at 3:12 in the third.

–Field level media