DALLAS (AP) — Mikko Rantanen is now really on the other side, settling in as a Star and going back to Colorado with a chance to advance in the NHL playoffs.
In his first postseason series with Dallas, against his former team no less, Rantanen broke through with first playoff goal and two assists for the Stars in their Game 5 victory that put them on the verge of eliminating the Avalanche for the second year in a row.
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Dallas Stars right wing Mikko Rantanen, left, gets tied up by Colorado Avalanche left wing Jonathan Drouin in overtime of Game 3 of an NHL hockey first-round playoff series Wednesday, April 23, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Colorado Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson, left, and Dallas Stars right wing Mikko Rantanen (96) collide while competing for the puck during the first period in Game 2 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series Monday, April 21, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Dallas Stars right wing Mikko Rantanen (96) chases the puck during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Nashville Predators, Wednesday, April 16, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Dallas Stars right wing Mikko Rantanen, center, pursues the puck with Colorado Avalanche defenseman Samuel Girard, left, and center Brock Nelson in the second period of Game 4 of an NHL hockey first-round playoff series Saturday, April 26, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Dallas Stars right wing Mikko Rantanen brings the puck down the ice in the second period of Game 3 of an NHL hockey first-round playoff series against the Colorado Avalanche Wednesday, April 23, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
“It's reality, I guess,” Rantanen said with a grin Wednesday, the day before Game 6 of the series.
After being in the playoffs with the Avs each of the past seven years and playing with them during 10 seasons, including their Stanley Cup title in 2022, Rantanen was traded twice in a six-week period — first to Carolina on Jan. 24, then to Dallas on March 7 in a deadline deal completed after he agreed to a $96 million, eight-year contract extension.
Playoffs included, the 28-year-old Rantanen has now played 25 games with the Stars.
“That's the biggest thing, I think, is settling in and playing with instinct,” Rantanen said. “The systems and everything, it’s in the back of my mind now, so I don’t have to think about anything on the ice, like where I have to go. It comes with instinct and it’s going to come even more the more games go by. ... Settling is a good word to say, which is always key to playing well.”
It was in Game 6 at Colorado last season that the Stars wrapped up a second-round series on Matt Duchene's goal 11:42 into the second overtime for a 2-1 victory. Rantanen had the lone Avalanche goal in that game.
In Game 3 of this series, his first in the playoffs as an opponent in Colorado, Rantanen had the secondary assist on Tyler Seguin's overtime winner. That was Rantanen's only postseason point for Dallas until Game 5, when his goal came on a 2-on-1 break and some nifty back-and-forth passing with Roope Hintz. He did have 12 shots on goal the first four games.
“He is settling and I think he’s a lot closer than the numbers say. I thought he’s had two or three really good games in this series so far,” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. “He played great that night in Colorado (Game 3). ... I think he’s stringing together more and more games here where he looks comfortable, and he’s going to make an impact even if the points aren't showing it.”
In 81 career playoff games for Colorado, Rantanen had 101 points (34 goals, 67 assists). His last game with the Avalanche was Jan. 22, but the regular season ended with him still as their third-leading scorer with 64 points (25 goals, 39 assists) in his 49 games there, behind Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar.
After six points (two goals) in his 13-game stint with Carolina, Rantanen had five goals and 13 assists over the final 20 regular-season games for Dallas, giving him an 82-game total of 88 points (32 goals). It was the seventh time in eight seasons to average more than a point a game, the lone exception in that stretch being 41 points in 42 games in 2019-20.
He is on a line in Dallas with fellow Finnish players Hintz and Mikael Granlund. Hintz, the same age as Rantanen, has played all seven of his NHL seasons with Dallas. The 33-year-old Granlund was acquired from San Jose in a trade on Feb. 1, and has only 11 more games in Dallas than Rantanen.
“They have a history together as Finnish players and national teams and things like that,” DeBoer said. “I don’t know if they played together as a line before, but I think that always speeds up the chemistry when you have a familiarity like that and you know, they’re countrymen, they speak Finnish to each other, they can communicate really easily.”
Duchene played his first eight-plus NHL seasons with Colorado, where his final full season was when Rantanen was a rookie.
“Having him in the room is good,” Duchene said. “You know he's a great player because he behaves like a great player. So, easy guy to bring in.”
This story has been corrected to show Rantanen had 101 playoff points with Colorado, not 99.
AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/NHL
Dallas Stars right wing Mikko Rantanen, left, gets tied up by Colorado Avalanche left wing Jonathan Drouin in overtime of Game 3 of an NHL hockey first-round playoff series Wednesday, April 23, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Colorado Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson, left, and Dallas Stars right wing Mikko Rantanen (96) collide while competing for the puck during the first period in Game 2 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series Monday, April 21, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Dallas Stars right wing Mikko Rantanen (96) chases the puck during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Nashville Predators, Wednesday, April 16, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Dallas Stars right wing Mikko Rantanen, center, pursues the puck with Colorado Avalanche defenseman Samuel Girard, left, and center Brock Nelson in the second period of Game 4 of an NHL hockey first-round playoff series Saturday, April 26, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Dallas Stars right wing Mikko Rantanen brings the puck down the ice in the second period of Game 3 of an NHL hockey first-round playoff series against the Colorado Avalanche Wednesday, April 23, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
A federal judge has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from paying any claims through a new $1.776 billion settlement fund for Trump allies who believe they were victims of a weaponized government. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, also barred the government from moving forward with the fund’s creation while litigation is pending to challenge it.
Meanwhile, former Attorney General Pam Bondi is testifying before House lawmakers investigating Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse cases, a long-awaited appearance that brings fresh scrutiny of the administration’s botched release of the Epstein case files.
Here's the latest:
The White House referred all questions to the Justice Department, which didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys from the legal advocacy group Democracy Forward are seeking a court order halting the fund’s implementation and preventing the Trump administration from disbursing any payouts from it. The federal suit claims there’s no legal basis or accountability behind the fund.
At least two other lawsuits, both filed separately in Washington, also are challenging the fund’s creation.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has met with his Pakistani counterpart, Ishaq Dar, as a tentative deal to extend a fragile ceasefire with Iran hangs in the balance.
Neither Rubio nor Dar — whose country has emerged as a main player and mediator in talks to end the conflict — spoke or responded to questions from reporters as they posed for photographs at the State Department on Friday. Dar has been in the United States since earlier this week to attend meetings at the United Nations in New York.
The meeting came just a day after U.S. officials said an agreement in principle on a memorandum of understanding to extend the ceasefire, reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and return to talks on Iran’s nuclear program had been reached. That agreement, though, must still be approved by President Trump and Iran’s top leadership and there was no indication when that might happen.
A federal judge has temporarily blocked Trump’s administration from paying any claims through a new $1.776 billion settlement fund for Trump allies who believe they were victims of a weaponized government.
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, on Friday also barred the government from moving forward with the fund’s creation while litigation is pending to challenge it.
The judge scheduled a June 12 hearing for arguments on whether to extend the order blocking payouts from an “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” which the government created to resolve Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns.
The fund has created a fierce backlash since it was announced last week, with even Republicans pressing acting Attorney General Todd Blanche over the eligibility considerations and the possibility that even violent rioters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, would be free to seek compensation.
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The former attorney general is appearing before House lawmakers as they investigate how the government has handled the investigations into Jeffrey Epstein.
Bondi was ousted as attorney general last month, but her in her previous testimony to Congress she has been defiant in the face of lawmakers’ questions about how the Department of Justice handled the release of case files on Epstein. She is also accompanied today by Department of Justice officials — an arrangement Democrats have criticized.
Several survivors of Epstein’s abuse also appeared outside the House office room where the interview is happening behind closed doors. They pressed the committee chair, Republican Rep. James Comer, to closely question Bondi.
“We want justice for the survivors, we do,” Comer told them.
Democrats may be in a more celebratory mood than usual as they gather Friday in South Carolina, a state led almost entirely by Republicans.
The party is holding events days after the GOP-led state Senate shot down an effort backed by President Donald Trump to redraw House district lines to help Republicans this fall. That move was aimed at ousting longtime Rep. Jim Clyburn, the state’s lone congressional Democrat and a party powerbroker who’s been in office since 1993.
Friday’s gatherings kick off with the Blue Palmetto Dinner, an annual party fundraiser that typically showcases potential presidential contenders and the party’s national figures. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear will be the headliner.
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Former Attorney General Pam Bondi is testifying before House lawmakers investigating Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse cases, a long-awaited appearance that brings fresh scrutiny of the administration’s botched release of the Epstein case files.
Bondi was defiant in previous public testimony when she was confronted by lawmakers about the Epstein investigation. It’s unclear whether she’ll bring the same approach Friday, now that she is no longer in charge of the Justice Department. The session will be held behind closed doors.
The transcribed interview will give lawmakers a chance to dig for information on the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files and other related matters, including the prison sentence of his former girlfriend and confidant, Ghislaine Maxwell. The Justice Department moved Maxwell to a prison camp in Texas last August.
“I think she absolutely could clear up many missing pieces if she wanted to,” said Rep. Yassamin Ansari, an Arizona Democrat on the House Oversight Committee. “Now it’s a question of whether or not she is willing to be transparent.”
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A federal judge has declined to halt Trump’s executive order creating a federal voter list and limiting mail voting, clearing the way for potential sweeping changes in how American elections are run shortly before this year’s midterm elections.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee in Washington, late Wednesday rejected the request by Democrats and civil rights groups that had argued Trump’s order would likely be found unconstitutional because the states and Congress, not the president, have the power to set election rules. Nichols agreed with the Republican Trump administration’s contention that it was too early to block the order because it has yet to be implemented.
Nichols’ ruling leaves the door open for further challenges when the Trump administration moves to implement the president’s directive. A separate lawsuit seeking to block the executive order is underway in Boston. No matter how rapidly the administration acts, no voting changes are expected during primary elections, which continue into next month.
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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday that his department has prepared the design for a $250 bill featuring Trump, anticipating the passage of stalled legislation in Congress to put the president on a new denomination of legal tender.
Bessent said at the White House that authorizing the new currency will be up to lawmakers on Capitol Hill, but that “we’ve created the bill” because “we have to be prepared.”
The secretary downplayed the idea that the administration is pushing the matter, despite Trump’s penchant for infusing his name and likeness across the nation’s capital and into the observances of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Yet he also insisted there is nothing inappropriate about Trump’s visage being part of the seminal national celebration.
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The top federal prosecutor in Chicago denied Thursday evening that his office had opened an investigation into E. Jean Carroll, the longtime advice columnist who has said Trump sexually assaulted her 30 years ago, hours after multiple news organizations reported that the Justice Department was investigating whether she had lied during the course of civil litigation against Trump.
The Associated Press and other news organizations, citing anonymous sources, reported that the federal prosecutors’ office in Chicago had opened an investigation into Carroll.
But Andrew Boutros, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, issued a statement roughly 24 hours after the first report was published saying that his office “has not opened — and has never opened — a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll.”
A person familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, initially told the AP on Thursday morning that investigators were focused on Carroll but later clarified that the actual focus was on a nonprofit that had helped fund her case.
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U.S. and Iranian negotiators reached a tentative agreement Thursday to extend the ceasefire in the 3-month-old war by 60 days and start a new round of talks on Iran’s nuclear program, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.
Iran did not immediately confirm any deal. Vice President JD Vance on Thursday evening confirmed there was a tentative agreement, but said it was unclear if Trump would approve it.
“It’s hard to say exactly when or if the president’s going to sign,” Vance told reporters.
He added: “We’re going back and forth on a couple of language points.”
The emerging memorandum of understanding came as the fragile ceasefire in the war between the U.S. and Iran appeared to be wavering. The latest flare-up in fighting happened less than a day earlier, when Kuwait intercepted missiles fired from Iran, according to U.S. Central Command.
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— Aamer Madhani, Jon Gambrell, Michelle L. Price and Sam Metz
Equipment is seen being constructed on the South Lawn of the White House, Thursday, May 28, 2026, in Washington for a future UFC mixed martial arts fight to be held on June 14 as part of America 250 celebrations. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Wednesday, May 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
President Donald Trump departs Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Tuesday, May 26, 2026, in Bethesda, Md. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
