Top defenseman Miro Heiskanen and prolific forward Jason Robertson, their leading goal scorer in the regular season, missed the seven-game series against Colorado because of lower-body injuries.

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.

Mikko Rantanen figures he would have left the room in disbelief had someone told him at the beginning of this season that he would score a hat track in a Game 7 against Colorado. After all, that was the organization with which he made his NHL debut just weeks before his 19th birthday.