SAN JOSE
– Home Sweet Home was the appropriate saying Saturday night as
the San Jose Sharks moved to 17-0-2 on home ice with a 3-2 conquest
of the streaking New York Rangers at sold-out HP Pavilion.
SAN JOSE – Home Sweet Home was the appropriate saying Saturday night as the San Jose Sharks moved to 17-0-2 on home ice with a 3-2 conquest of the streaking New York Rangers at sold-out HP Pavilion.
Joe Thornton earned two assists as San Jose snapped a two-game losing streak, at the same time ending a three-game Ranger winning streak.
Evgeni Nabokov made 32 saves as the Sharks bounced back from Thursday’s 6-0 defeat in Detroit.
“Nabby played well tonight – that’s probably the reason we won,” said Thornton.
San Jose struck for a pair of power play goals within the first five minutes of play to grab the 2-0 cushion.
New York earned two penalties to give the Sharks the 5-on-3 power play for 68 seconds.
Dan Boyle made the Rangers pay with a one-timer from the top of the left circle off a Thornton feed at 4:27. The goal was the 11th of the season, tying Boyle with Nashville’s Shea Weber atop the scoring list for defensemen.
Since four seconds remained on the 5-on-3, San Jose stayed on the power play. Ryane Clowe cleaned up after a point-blank Joe Pavelski shot to flip in his 14th goal of the season at 4:52.
“The special teams were big for us,” said Boyle. “Overall, it was a much better effort than last game.”
The Rangers responded with a goal from Nikolai Zherdev while the teams skated 4-on-4. Zherdev’s shot on a 2-on-1 rush came from the center of the left circle for his 12th goal of the year at 10:34 of the first period.
Patrick Marleau’s team-high 17th goal of the year came 6:20 into the second period.
Devin Setoguchi keyed the scoring play by hustling to keep the puck in the offensive zone. Thornton controlled Setoguchi’s pass to the area behind the net, quickly finding Marleau at the bottom of the right circle for the quick strike past goaltender Henrik Lundqvist.
The Rangers managed a goal at 9:56 of the second when Brandon Dubinksy’s long shot was stopped, the puck bounding off Ranger forward Ryan Callahan and into the net.
“(Nabokov) played great,” said Rangers coach Tom Renney. “We waited a little too long to turn up the heat a bit on them. Had we done that a little bit earlier, we would have had a different outcome.”
The Sharks host the Vancouver Canucks Tuesday before starting a three-game road trip Saturday in St. Louis.
