San Jose scores 3 times in 3rd to beat Rangers
The Sharks came at the Rangers in waves on Saturday, and it finally paid dividends in the third period.
Joe Thornton scored a tiebreaking goal at 5:45 of the final period, leading San Jose to a 4-1 win over the New York Rangers at SAP Center.
The hosts put a season-high 52 shots on goal to improve their home record to 15-15-3.
“We definitely stuck with it,” Sharks captain Joe Pavelski said. “It’s a game you look up after two periods, we’re at 37 shots and it’s tied. Sometimes those games can go the other way, especially if you get a hot goalie.”
Sharks forwards Joel Ward and Pavelski scored 1:31 apart before the midway point of the period after Thornton’s 17th goal — chasing New York goalie Henrik Lundqvist in the process — to spark the Sharks to a third win in four games.
“We had good legs right from the drop of the first puck,” Sharks forward Chris
Tierney said. “We felt confident even when they tied it up there that if we stuck to the game plan we could still win the game.”
San Jose, which moved to one point behind second-place Anaheim in the Pacific Division, hosts Arizona on Sunday night.
The Sharks managed to win, too, without top defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic and speedy forward Matt Nieto, both day-to-day after getting injured during Thursday’s loss to the Coyotes. Vlasic (leg) is expected to return before Nieto (hand).
“Guys who filled in were ready to play, so that was nice,” Pavelski said.
On the tie-breaking goal, Tomas Hertl forced New York defenseman Dan Girardi to turn late, and the Sharks’ forward put a shot on goal that was followed by Thornton’s put-back into an open net. The goal came on shot No. 44, which was San Jose’s previous high in a game this season.
“Lundqvist was making second, third and fourth saves. We were starting to wonder how we’d get one in the net,” Pavelski said. “But guys did a good job supporting each other.”
The Sharks then made it goals on consecutive shots when Ward scored his second of the game and 19th of the season at 7:34 by capping a 3-on-2 break. Pavelski’s 33rd at 9:05 came on San Jose’s 47th shot, and also completed an odd-man break to chase Lundqvist in favor of back-up Antti Raanta.
San Jose goalie Martin Jones stopped 25 shots to collect his 35th win.
The Sharks continued to carry the play in the second period, but went into the locker room with only a 1-1 tie.
San Jose’s second power play unit came to the rescue on San Jose’s first man-advantage of the game to break a scoreless tie.
From behind the net, left wing Joonas Donskoi found Ward, who picked the far side of the net against Lundqvist.
“I was thinking hopefully he saw me open there behind his back, and he did,” Ward said of Donskoi. “It was an unbelievable pass. It’s been like that all year. I’ve seen that all year since summer time. His hockey skill level and I.Q. is pretty high.”