Mikko Rantanen sends confident message after Stars' OT loss to Wild

Mikko Rantanen sends confident message after Stars' OT loss to Wild originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The Dallas Stars wasted the opportunity to take a 3-1 lead in their series against the Minnesota Wild on Saturday, losing 2-3 in overtime.

After the game, winger Mikko Rantanen spoke to the media and sent a confident message heading into the upcoming games. The Finnish player pointed out that Dallas knows how to play in this kind of context.

"Both teams had chances in the OT to win it, but got the home ice now, it's best of three, so this group has been in this situation before, so pretty familiar," he said.

"I think we're just gonna try to put the puck back in the net. At times, we were dominating five-on-five, you know. So I'm not worried about generating and stuff like that."

Rantanen says Stars have chemistry on power play: 'Your confidence grows in every situation'

Rantanen, 29, acknowledged that both they and Minnesota are balanced teams offensively and defensively, and alluded to luck in finding a couple of bounces in a five-on-five game.

He said, "Both teams can defend. Both teams can play offense, and yeah, we got to find a couple bounces in a five-on-five game and try to go to the net and get lucky."

When asked how confident they are in the power play, Rantanen added, "Yeah, we have chemistry, with lots of the guys we have, we've played together all year and making plays and moving the puck quickly, but obviously it helps when you get goals, you know, then your confidence grows in every situation, so that's important."

Dallas will host Minnesota in Game 5 of this series on Tuesday, April 28, at the American Airlines Center at 7 p.m. CT.