Terrifying scene as Miko Rantanen goes down injured

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Vincent Carbonneau
April 30, 2026  (8:45 PM)

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Photo credit: Screenshot

Mikko Rantanen gave Glen Gulutzan a real scare in Game 6 when the Stars winger suddenly headed down the tunnel.

That was the moment that changed the mood. Dallas entered the night facing elimination against Minnesota, down 3-2 in the series, so any injury scare around Rantanen landed hard right away.

The sequence making the rounds shows Rantanen leaving under his own power, but not with much comfort. That is what made it feel bigger than a routine equipment issue or quick maintenance skate.

And the timing could not have been worse. Dallas was already fighting for its season in St. Paul, where one more loss would end the series.

The live reporting around the game tied the scare to contact from Marcus Foligno, and that only added more tension to a series that already felt heavy.

For the Stars, this was never going to be just another bench moment. Rantanen is too important to the attack, too important to the matchup game, and too important to the room.

The first fear was obvious. When a star forward goes down the tunnel in an elimination game, everybody instantly starts thinking worst-case.

Here is the clip :

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That is the part that matters most now. The update from the scene was that Rantanen did come back, which changed the whole emotional read for Dallas.

But a return does not always mean everything is fine. In the playoffs, players come back all the time while still clearly dealing with something.

That is why this remains a real story even after the tunnel scare cooled. A player can return to the bench and still be limited in his pace, edges, or willingness to lean into traffic.

For Gulutzan, that creates a different problem. He may still have Rantanen available, but he now has to read whether he has the same player or just a version of him gutting through it.

And in a Game 6 on the road, that difference matters. Dallas does not only need Rantanen in uniform. It needs him driving offense and helping tilt a game that can swing the whole series.

So yes, the best news is that he came back. That kept this from becoming a full disaster for the Stars.

Still, the scare was real, the timing was brutal, and the concern does not disappear just because he returned. In a series this tight, even a brief tunnel walk from Mikko Rantanen feels like something Dallas will keep watching shift by shift.

Previously

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1 HOUR AGO   |   16 ANSWERS Terrifying scene as Miko Rantanen goes down injured Did Mikko Rantanen's tunnel scare feel like the turning point everyone feared for Dallas ?

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