Rantanen scores, offers retort to teammate's dad

After scoring for the first time in nearly three weeks, Colorado Avalanche winger Mikko Rantanen had a message for one of his critics.

The critic? It was Ismo Lehkonen, the father of Rantanen’s teammate and Avalanche winger Artturi Lehkonen.

Rantanen’s comments came after he scored a goal and tallied three points in Colorado’s 6-5 win against the Calgary Flames on Monday night. The goal was the Finnish winger’s first since Nov. 22 and was also the game-tying score, as the Avalanche ending the third period with three unanswered goals.

Rantanen also had the secondary assist on Nathan MacKinnon‘s game-winning goal for his seventh multipoint game of the season.

“It feels good. It’s one thing where I got a lot of extra energy. One of Finnish NHL player’s dad was talking s— about me in the media that I didn’t train last summer like I used to do,” Rantanen said. “He was making things up, so, I think that was for him. If you talk s— it’s going to come back at you.”

The interview Rantanen referenced was one that Ismo Lehkonen gave to Yle Uutiset, Finland’s national broadcasting entity. Ismo Lehkonen, who is a hockey analyst for Yle, spoke for a story about the Avalanche’s season.

Entering Monday, the Avalanche had lost five of their past six games after starting the season 15-6, as they attempt to win their second Stanley Cup in three years.

A translation of the elder Lehkonen’s statement questioned if Rantanen had hit a wall “for a while,” while noting, “he didn’t have a very good summer.” Ismo Lehkonen also said that “frustration and pain have started to show in Rantanen’s game.”

Rantanen’s three-point game against the Flames means he enters Tuesday leading the Avalanche with 13 goals, while his 34 points are third on the team behind MacKinnon and Cale Makar.

As for Artturi Lehkonen, he sustained a neck injury in November and was expected to miss between six and eight weeks from when he received his initial diagnosis. Lehkonen did not speak to reporters in Denver, as injured players are often not allowed to talk until they are healthy and have returned to the active roster.

Avalanche coach Jared Bednar praised Rantanen for his performance, saying he thought the hulking winger was “a horse tonight,” adding that his last game was “a big step in the right direction.”

“It wasn’t to the level of what his game was tonight, but it was a really good step in the right direction,” Bednar said. “And oftentimes, when you start doing things the right way, it doesn’t turn around overnight. You have to stick with it and you have to believe that will get you out of your slump. You can tell he had some good chances early in the game and things still aren’t going in and there’s plays right there for him and he doesn’t put them in. Eventually, they get rewarded because they stuck with it — that line. I thought that line was good.”