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Resilient Sharks battle back to
beat Rangers
SJ overcomes 3rd period deficit to win
in OT
So the Sharks do remember how to win. The spiraling
stopped for one night, allowing the team to clinch a playoff birth, by beating
the New York Rangers in a wild 5-4 overtime game at SAP Center. Defenseman
Brent Burns rifle a shot past Henrik Lundqvist 3:10 into the extra period to
help the Sharks snap their season high 6-game losing streak. Call it a
topsy-tuvey win that saw the Sharks blow a 2-goal lead, then claw back in the
3rd period to tie the game late before winning it in the extra period.
Things started out swimmingly for San Jose, who jumped on the Rangers early in
the game by out skating them and employing a relentless forecheck. Trade
deadline acquisition Jannick Hansen scored his first goal in teal 1:44 into the
game. Hansen punched home his own rebound after he threw the puck on net from
behind the left post. Hansen's linemate and countryman Mikkel Boedker started
the scoring sequence by firing a puck on net from the slot, but Hansen's
tenacity resulted in a 1st period lead for a Sharks team in dire need of good
start.
JT Miller tied the game 12 minutes later after he stripped Paul
Martin of the puck in front of the Sharks bench then raced in on the right wing
and snapped a shot over Martin Jones' left shoulder.
A tripping
penalty by Boedker put the Rangers on the power play late in the period, but
Melker Karlsson turned the tables on New York by racing up the left wing and
beating Lundqvist with a wrist shot. The Sharks forced the turnover deep in
their own zone, then Karlsson and Chris Tierney skated up ice with Rangers
defenseman Brady Skjei between them. Karlsson elected to shoot rather than
pass, allowing the Sharks to take a lead into the 1st intermission.
Tierney gave the Sharks a two-goal lead 11:38 into the 2nd period after he
gathered his own rebound in the slot and fired a shot past Lundqvist for his
8th goal of the season. Tierney skated up the slot and held the puck to allow a
Rangers defender to skate past him before whipping a shot on net while several
skaters jostled for position in front of the net. Tierney kept his eye on the
puck after it kicked off Lundqvist's left pad, back out to him as he skated
toward the right post.
All the Sharks hard work went up in flames.
Things started to unravel when Patrick Marleau was called for a
questionable interference penalty as several players tried skating out of the
Rangers zone.
Derek Stepan converted on the ensuing power play with 23
seconds left in the period to cut the Sharks lead to 3-2. Stepan converted a
back door shot after Matt Zuccrello set him up with a pass through the slot
from the right point. Stepan lurked out of the left corner and threw
Zuccarello's pass easily past Jones after Justin Braun failed to get a stick in
front of the pass.
Jesper Fast tied the game 84 seconds into the 3rd
period by tipping a Skjei shot from the left point. Fast skated through the
slot and redirected Skjei's shot by getting a stick blade on the puck while
facing the net.
The 6-game losing streak looked like it might reach 7
games three minutes later when Miller scored his 2nd goal of the game. Tierney
was sent off for interference but Mika Zibanejad was simultaneously whistled
for embellishment to setup a 4-on-4 situation, but Burns tripped Kevin Hayes.
Miller ripped a Skjei feed from the bottom of the right circle past Jones to a
make it a 4-3 Rangers lead.
The Sharks had 15 minutes to claw back, but it wasn't
until Tierney converted at 17:45 that the sellout crowd could exhale. Hansen
tried forcing the issue from the doorstep, pushing a shot off Lundqvist, but
Tierney was Johnny-on-the-spot, crashing in from the left side and lifting the
rebound into a wide open net.
Nick Holden simplified things for San
Jose in the overtime when he grabbed a hold of Patrick Marleau's stick as the
Sharks forward tried to breakout of his own zone which would have resulted in
an odd-man rush.
San Jose countered the Rangers 4-on-3 goal when Burns
ripped a Joe Pavelski feed from the left dot for his 28th goal of the season.
The air pressure in the building increased with the collective exhaling of the
home crowd, which hadn't seen a victory in two weeks.
Game
Notes:
* Chris Tierney finished the evening with a 3 point night (2
gals, 1 assist). Brady Skjei finished the game with 3 assists.
* Tomas
Hertl won 14 of 18 faceoffs (78%). The Sharks were a collective 22 of 57 on
draws (58%).
* David Schlemko, Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Brent Burns
combined for 12 of the Sharks 35 shots. Schlemko and Tierney each had a team
high 5 shots for San Jose.
* Logan Couture was scratched from the game
as he deals with the affects of the puck he took to his face.
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1 |
2 |
3 |
OT |
T |
| NYR |
1 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
4 |
| SJ |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
5 |
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| 1st period - 1, SJ,
Hansen 7 (Hertl, Boedker), 1:44. 2, NYR, Miller 21 (Puempel), 13:30. 3, SJ,
Karlsson 10 (Vlasic, Braun), 18:01, (sh). |
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| 2nd period - 4, SJ,
Tierney 8 (unassisted), 11:38. 5, NYR, Stepan 16 (Zuccarello, Skjei), 19:37,
(pp). |
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| 3rd period - 6, NYR,
Fast 6 (Skjei, Hayes), 1:24. 7, NYR, Miller 22 (Skjei, Hayes), 4:44, (pp). 8,
SJ, Tierney 9 (Hansen, Boedker), 17:45 |
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| Overtime - 9, SJ, Burns
28 (Pavelski, Marleau), 3:10, (pp). |
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| 1st period - Smith, NYR
(interference), 13:55; Boedker, SJ (tripping), 16:09. |
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| 2nd period - Marleau, SJ
(interfernce), 18:29. |
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| 3rd period - Zibenjad,
NYR (embellishment), 2:49; Tierney, SJ (interference), 2:49; Burns, SJ
(tripping), 17:45. |
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| Overtime - Holdne, NYR
(holding the stick), 2:35. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| NYR - Lundqvist |
35 |
30 |
| SJ - Jones |
28 |
24 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
OT |
T |
| NYR |
7 |
7 |
12 |
2 |
28 |
| SJ |
9 |
14 |
10 |
2 |
35 |
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| Referees: Rooney,
StPierre. Linesmen: Knorr, Heyer. |
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