Cowboy hats, baseball caps and even a fedora landed on the American Airlines Center ice Saturday night with just 2.7 seconds left in regulation of Game 7. Stars forward Mikko Rantanen scored his third goal of the night and third period into an empty net to secure the 4-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche and win the Stars’ first-round series in an epic comeback.

For nearly two and a half periods, the Avalanche had put up a defensive wall. Rantanen busted it down with two individual efforts.

Since the Stanley Cup win in 2022, the Avalanche have won just one playoff series and lost two Game 7s in the process. With MacKinnon and Cale Makar at the height of their primes, Colorado has to find a way to get back over the playoff hump for another deep run.