Tuesday was a wonderful night for Carolina Hurricanes fans.
In the Stars' first visit to Carolina since the blockbuster trade-deadline deal sending Mikko Rantanen to Dallas last season, one of the key assets coming back to the Hurricanes in the trade enjoyed a memorable evening.
Logan Stankoven juked Rantanen before beating Stars goalie Jake Oettinger to give the Hurricanes a 3-1 lead in an eventual 6-3 win. That led to chants of 'Logan's better' from the partisan crowd.
After the game, Stankoven said it wasn't the first time he had heard those words from a happy crowd.
"When I was playing in Kamloops with my junior team, when (Connor) Bedard came to town (with the Regina Pats, I think we beat them pretty handily. The chants were going on there, too," Stankoven said with a smile. "That's actually pretty funny, kind of a full-circle moment."
You can't blame Hurricanes fans for having a bit of fun at the expense of Rantanen, who couldn't come to terms on an extension with Carolina after the team acquired him in a three-team deal earlier that season with the Colorado Avalanche.
Rantanen was booed throughout Tuesday's game.
Rantanen eventually found the net with a forehand-backhand move early in the third to beat Brandon Bussi to set off even more hearty boos — along with roaring jeers when he headed to the penalty box midway through the period.
Rantanen is one of the league's top-10 scorers, while the younger Stankoven isn't close to that club. But for one night at least, it was Stankoven and Hurricanes fans getting the upper hand.
— with files from AP
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