Stars’ Finnish Scoring Run Is Fading

Through Thursday’s loss to the Montreal Canadiens, Finland-born players have scored 18 of the Dallas Stars‘ 34 goals outside the shootout, per NHL.com. It is still more than half, but no Finn has scored in either of the last two games, both losses.

The Finnish term for the group of Finns playing for the Dallas Stars is “suomalaismafia,” or as folks in Texas are more familiar with, the Finnish mafia. In an Oct. 26 story. Through the Oct. 22 win over the Winnipeg Jets, the Finns had 17 of 25 goals, or 68 percent. Three games later, the share is 53.

Mikko Rantanen leads with six goals, three of them in the Oct. 20 overtime win over the Boston Bruins, where his winner completed a hat trick. Roope Hintz has five, Miro Heiskanen and Arttu Hyry three each, and Joel Kiviranta one, while Esa Lindell, the sixth Finn, is injured and has not played since Oct. 17. Hyry, a 25-year-old undrafted forward from Oulu, came through Kärpät, his hometown club, and scored 24 goals as an AHL rookie with the Texas Stars in 2024-25.

The five-game winning streak ended Tuesday in a 5-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils that coach Glen Gulutzan called Dallas’ worst game of the season, per NHL.com’s Finnish edition, and no Finn recorded a point. Montreal won 5-2 on Thursday, Rantanen’s 30th birthday, with his two assists setting up both Dallas goals. The more useful lens is the shot data.

The Finns Are Shooting 16 Percent

Dallas’ Finns have taken 114 of the team’s 342 shots, exactly a third, and scored on 15.8 percent of them. Everyone else on the roster is shooting 7 percent.

Give every Dallas skater his career shooting percentage from before this season, and the same shots produce about 13 Finnish goals and about 27 for everyone else. That is a Finnish share of 33 percent, the same as their share of the shots.

Rantanen and Heiskanen account for most of the difference. Rantanen, a 16 percent career shooter, is converting 24 percent this season, and Heiskanen, a 5 percent career shooter from the blue line, has three goals on 25 shots. Only two of the 18 Finnish goals came on the power play, which rules out a hot first unit as the explanation.

The Goals Are Already Spreading Out

Wyatt Johnston is the clearest example. He scored 45 goals last season, went without a goal on his first 20 shots this season, and has three in his last four games, including Thursday’s power-play goal off a Rantanen feed.

Jason Robertson, the team’s other 45-goal scorer last season, is below his career rate with five goals on 43 shots. Defenseman Thomas Harley, a six-goal scorer last season, is still waiting with none on 23.

The other side has one structural point: Gulutzan trusts his Finns up and down the lineup, with a Finn on every line against Winnipeg, per Helsingin Uutiset. Kiviranta, back in Dallas on a one-year deal after three seasons in Colorado, moved up to the top line with Rantanen and Johnston for the Oct. 25 win over the New York Islanders. NHL.com’s Finnish edition had Dallas taking 71.7 percent of five-on-five shot attempts with him on the ice in the three games from Oct. 20 to 25, the best mark among Finnish NHL players.

That explains why the Finns get a third of the shots. It does not explain why they have scored on 16 percent of them.

Across the rest of the roster, Dallas sits about 11 goals below what career rates would produce. As those goals arrive, the Finnish share drifts back toward a third, even if Rantanen and Hintz keep finishing at their usual rates. That is the correction, in numbers.

Rantanen Set To Catch Koivu In January

Rantanen’s goal against the Islanders was his 322nd, moving him past Olli Jokinen for third among Finland-born NHL players, behind only Teemu Selänne (684) and Jari Kurri (601). Carolina’s Sebastian Aho, at 318, is four back with eight goals in 15 games this season.

The points list is next. Rantanen finished his birthday with 798 career points, two from 800 entering Saturday’s home game against the Columbus Blue Jackets and 35 from passing former Canadiens captain Saku Koivu (832) for third on that list. Florida’s Aleksander Barkov, at 782, has not played since the season’s second game, and Panthers coach Paul Maurice put his return about a month away this week, per Iltalehti.

If Rantanen keeps this season’s pace of 16 points in 13 games and stays in the lineup, he passes Koivu on Jan. 6 against the San Jose Sharks. At his career rate, the date is Jan. 12 against the Ottawa Senators.