Rantanen’s first 100 games with Dallas have yielded 114 points. Only Dino Ciccarelli, with 127, and Neal Broten, with 120, produced more across their first 100 games for the franchise. Thursday’s milestone also came with an uncomfortable result: a 2-1 loss at Columbus after a shootout, despite Rantanen scoring the Stars’ lone goal.
Rantanen’s goal was worth admiring on its own terms. With Dallas and Columbus scoreless through two periods, Wyatt Johnston took advantage of an Ivan Provorov turnover and got a shot toward Cam Talbot. The goaltender made the initial stop.
Rantanen reached the rebound beside the cage, held the puck long enough to make Talbot wait, then found the near side 6:27 into the final regulation period.
That patience was the point. Rantanen did not need a spectacular shot or a complicated sequence. He needed one extra beat after the first save, and he used it.
The goal was his ninth of the season, his third in a row and his fifth point across four games. A player with 114 points in 100 Dallas games tends to make those small decisions look routine. They are not routine for everyone else.
They were also all Dallas had in regulation.
The Stars were not starved for opportunities. They finished with 28 shots, including five from Thomas Harley, five from Esa Lindell and three each from Jason Robertson and Tyler Seguin. Johnston supplied an assist and two shots. Those figures do not describe an attack that never arrived; they describe one that could not turn enough of its work into goals.
Talbot deserves a large share of the explanation. In the second period, he denied Lindell near the right post with a scrambling glove stop at 9:16. Later, at 16:45, Robertson broke in alone and Talbot kept the attempt out with his left pad.
Those were separate, high-value interruptions before Rantanen finally got Dallas on the board. The Blue Jackets’ goaltender stopped 27 of 28 shots, and his performance made the Stars’ margin perilously small.
Dallas also got enough help at its own end to keep Rantanen’s finish in play. Casey DeSmith stopped 29 of Columbus’ 30 shots over 65 minutes, and the Stars reached overtime without surrendering another regulation goal. Zach Werenski tied the game when the third-period clock reached 16:46, lifting a backhand over DeSmith’s left pad after entering from the left circle.
Dallas then outshot Columbus 3-1 in overtime, though none of those chances settled the game.
That defensive resistance mattered, particularly with Miro Heiskanen unavailable. It also could not turn Rantanen’s goal into a second one. A team may defend well enough to earn a point and still leave the rink knowing its best offensive sequence ended with the first goal and stopped there.
