David Quinn’s Sharks bite New York Rangers with a 3-2 OT win
David Quinn and his San Jose Sharks were winless as he faced his old team the New York Rangers.
When it was all said and done, Quinn would get a modicum of revenge for his dismissal as his Sharks came away with a 3-2 OT victory.
Recap: Sharks 3 vs Rangers 2 (OT)
1st Period
The New York Rangers came out quick and got a high danger scoring chance seconds after the opening face-off. Mika Zibanejad set up Kaapo Kakko whose one-timer was stopped by James Reimer.
That was a theme in the early going as Reimer was standing on his head including killing off a 5 on 3 man advantage making 3 saves. That allowed the Sharks to recover and open the scoring on a power play chance of their own. Logan Couture would beat Igor Shesterkin off a rebound with Sammy Blais in the box for hooking at 6:02.
The Rangers maintained the edge in play, but with all the special teams work the lines had to be juggled by Gerard Gallant. At one point, Ryan Reaves was on the top line and the Kid line was reunited for a 5v5 shift.
Late in the period, Filip Chytil was slashed by Luke Kunin with 49 seconds left to draw the Rangers fourth power play. New York was unable to score but entered the second period with 71 seconds remaining on the man advantage.
When there’s so much special teams play it’s hard to get back to 5 on 5,” Adam Fox said during the MSG intermission. “We just have to keep getting chances. We’ve been good about getting second chances and that’s why we’ve been scoring a lot. If we can get one early it will help.”
2nd Period
Once again, the Sharks aggressive penalty killers got the job done, but the Rangers gained some momentum off the power play. Filip Chytil would hustle by a Sharks defender to create an odd-man rush. With the passing lane cut off, the big center simply snapped it by Reimer to tie the game just 1:50 into the middle frame.
The Rangers kept their foot on the gas and continued to get chances, including Chris Kreider ringing one off the post. As the Sharks struggled to handle the team’s speed it was a give-and-go between Fox and Artemi Panarin that ended with the NHL’s leading scorer getting his 11th point on his third goal of the season at the 9:05 mark.
Despite all the pressure, it took one breakdown in the neutral zone that led to San Jose tying the game just four minutes later. Sharks defenseman Radim Simek was able to sneak in from the point and use a screen in front to beat Shesterkin and tie the game.
“It’s not an offensive free-for-all,” Trouba said. “We have to play defense too.”
3rd Period
As has been par for the course in this contest, the Rangers had another great early scoring chance. This time it was Panarin finding Trouba at the net, but his shot rang off the post keeping the game tied.
San Jose started to get some momentum going their way and started getting some great chances. First it was Timo Meier getting stopped by Shesterkin, followed by Nico Sturm being robbed on a partial breakaway.
That’s the way the rest of the period as the Sharks outshot the Rangers 16-2 with last year’s Vezina winner stopping them all.
The Rangers finished 0-5 on the power play and it was something Chris Kreider noted in the loss.
“We lost the special teams battle,” Kreider said. “We had to take what they gave us. It was a different look and we didn’t respond.”
Overtime
The extra session was more of the same as the Rangers were simply abysmal.
Shesterkin stopped Tomas Hertl just seconds into OT. However, off the next draw San Jose kept control and eventually Erik Karlsson hit a wide-open net to give David Quinn his first win as the Sharks head coach.
“I was pretty happy in the first two periods,” Gallant lamented. “But that third period I have no idea where that game from. A total collapse. Embarrassing really.”
Notable Rangers
- Igor Shesterkin made 24 saves on 27 shots
- Artemi Panarin tied Rod Gilbert for most points by a NYR through five games (11 points)
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