Instant Replay: Sharks fall to Rangers, suffer first loss of season

Share

BOX SCORE

NEW YORK – After getting shut out in their previous two trips to Madison Square Garden, the Sharks finally broke through with four goals on Monday night.

Unfortunately for them, the Rangers scored a few more in giving San Jose (2-1-0) its first loss of the regular season, 7-4.

The Rangers took control in the second period, scoring a pair to open up a 3-1 lead.

Rick Nash gave New York the lead for good at 4:15. Ryan McDonagh purposely shot the puck wide of the net, and it rebounded off of the end boards to Nash’s stick in front and he tapped it through Martin Jones’ legs.

Chris Kreider’s remarkable, bar-down wrist shot from the circle on a New York power play gave the home team a two-goal cushion at 10:21. Kreider was momentarily shaken up on a dangerous Brenden Dillon hit less than two minutes earlier, resulting in the power play.

The Sharks had a pair of power plays of their own before the intermission, but struggled to get set up in the offensive zone.

In the third, Brent Burns cut the lead to 3-2. Joe Pavelski found him alone in the high slot, and Burns whipped a wrist shot though at 9:13.

Burns, though allowed Kevin Hayes to sneak behind him about three minutes later, and Hayes easily redirected in a pass from Jesper Fast at 12:16 to restore the two-goal cushion. Just 21 seconds later, more soft defensive zone play resulted in an easy conversion for Jimmy Vesey for the rookie’s first-ever NHL goal.

San Jose kept up the fight. Again it was Burns, whose wrist shot form the top of the circle with 6:03 to go brought the Sharks back to within 5-3. Pavelski redirected a Burns shot one minute and 31 seconds later for his first goal, cutting the New York lead to 5-4.

A Mats Zuccarello shot into an empty net at 18:24 ended any thoughts of a San Jose comeback, though, and another empty netter by Michael Grabner capped the scoring.

San Jose fell to just 4-11-2 all-time at Madison Square Garden. The Sharks suffered 4-0 shutouts in each of their previous two trips here in 2014 and 2015.

The teams traded scores in the first period. Marc Staal powered a one-timer clean through Jones at 12:06, while Couture finished off a pass from Pavelski at 19:02 with San Jose on a two-man advantage.

Pavelski finished with three assists to go with his third period goal.

Special teams:
San Jose finished 1-for-4 on the power play. The Sharks converted on the two-man advantage, but struggled for the rest of the night. Overall, they are 3-for-12 on the season.

The Rangers had three power plays, scoring once.

In goal:
Jones, who has played each of the first three games, took the loss with five goals allowed on 27 shots. He’s 1-2-0 all-time versus New York.

Backup Antti Raanta got the start for New York and improved to 2-1-0 in his career against San Jose with 27 saves. It was his first game of the season.

Coach Pete DeBoer said Monday morning that Aaron Dell would “probably” make his NHL debut on Tuesday night.

Lineup:
Burns played in his 800th career NHL game.

New York was without two key defensemen, as Kevin Klein (back) and Dan Girardi (groin) were unavailable.

Up next:
After playing in Brooklyn on Tuesday night, the Sharks have a Stanley Cup Final rematch with the Penguins on Thursday in Pittsburgh. The road trip ends on Saturday in Detroit in the Sharks’ final game at Joe Louis Arena.

Contact Us