Brière was a monster in that series scoring six goals to lead the Flyers. The Sabres had a 3-2 series lead headed into Game 6 at home, but Brière scored twice in Game 6 as Philadelphia won 5-4 in overtime, on a goal by soon-to-be-Sabre Ville Leino. Brière also scored in Game 7 that gave the Flyers a 2-0 lead in a game they went on to win 5-2.

A day after Winnipeg’s Game 3 loss to Dallas at American Airlines Center, a reporter asked Jets coach Scott Arniel if the Jets have noticed any changes between the Stars team they saw in the regular season and the one they’re playing now in the second round of the playoffs.

The Avalanche first dealt Rantanen, a 2022 Stanley Cup champion while sharing the ice with Kadri, in January to the Carolina Hurricanes before he forced a trade-deadline move to the Stars. Immediately following his trade to Dallas, the Stars signed him to an eight-year, $96 million contract extension —a deal Colorado reportedly refused to match.

Mikko Rantanen’s NHL playoffs-record streak of consecutive goals involved in has ended at 13 for the Dallas Stars.

The Winnipeg Jets can’t stop Mikko Rantanen either. Rantanen, coming off a massive effort in Game 7 of the Dallas Stars’ first-round series, started the second round with another hat trick and helped the Stars to a 3-2 victory over the Jets in Game 1 on Wednesday night at Canada Life Centre.

After leading the Stars’ historic comeback in Game 7 vs. the Avalanche, in which Rantanen scored three third-period goals to storm back and steal the win, the newly-acquired forward didn’t slow down his pace for Game 1 vs. the Jets.

And while two overtime victories and a game seven hat trick from Mikko Rantanen in the team’s opening round win over the Colorado Avalanche certainly served as a path to getting back on track, a daunting task awaited in the second round in the form of the western conference’s top team from the 2024-25 season, the Winnipeg Jets.