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 Right winger Rick Nash scored his league-leading seventh goal of
the season and goaltender Henrik Lundqvist made 33 saves as the
Rangers dispatched the weary San Jose Sharks 4-0 on Sunday night at
Madison Square Garden.
The Sharks were playing their third game in four days and second in
a row, but it wasn't the average back-to-back situation -- after a 7
p.m. ET start against the New Jersey Devils on Saturday, the puck
dropped at 5 p.m. ET on Sunday against the Rangers.
Despite that advantage, the Rangers did not put the game away until
they scored three times in the final seven minutes of the second
period.
"We knew they were a long ways from home, long road trip, maybe we
could catch them off-guard," Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh said.
"We didn't get a goal (in the first period), but I think we
definitely got some momentum. Guys started feeling good and we built
off of that into the second."
Left winger Carl Hagelin scored 13:01 of the second period, then
right winger Martin St. Louis and Nash scored officially four
seconds apart in the final minute to push the lead to 3-0.
Lundqvist took care of the rest, earning his first shutout of the
season and the Rangers' second win in a row after dropping three
straight. After allowing 12 goals on 51 shots over two games,
Lundqvist responded in his two starts since, stopping 52 of 53
shots.
"It was probably our most complete game of the year," Lundqvist
said. "They played last night and they've been on the road for a
while, so we wanted to play our physical, focused game. We made so
many good decisions. We stayed patient with it too; it was a tight
game.
"Sooner or later, we knew we were going to create a big chance to
score."
The Rangers didn't do much create the chance as much as Sharks
goaltender Alex Stalock created the chance for them.
On Hagelin's goal, Stalock allowed a long rebound on a longer shot,
setting the stage for Hagelin to jump on the loose puck and smack it
home for his first goal of the season.
"I was early. It hit the back side of my glove," Stalock said of the
initial shot. "I was early and beat the puck to my chest. It's a
mistake you can't make in this league."
After St. Louis made it 2-0, Stalock again misplayed a long shot
that led to Nash poking the rebound through his legs for a
three-goal Rangers' lead.
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Rangers center Kevin Hayes scored his first NHL goal in the third
period to complete the scoring.
Sharks coach Todd McLellan was given a chance to absolve his
goaltender of those two shaky goals, but he instead opted for
honesty.
"They were bad goals," McLellan said. "He knows that. I can't
protect him. They only needed one bad goal tonight, though. We
didn't give him any run support so we lost this as a group."
As for the schedule the past two days, McLellan said: "The game was
there. We've played some games and won this year where we've been
under siege at some point. We didn't feel like that. We weren't
overwhelmed in our end for minutes on end and running around. We
were talking on the bench, that the game's out there, somebody's
going to step up and take it. And they obviously did."
NOTES: The Sharks, playing this season without a designated captain,
had LW Patrick Marleau, C Joe Thornton and D Marc-Edouard Vlasic
serving as alternate captains against the Rangers. Vlasic replaced
RW Joe Pavelski in the 'A' rotation. ... The Sharks conclude a
five-game road trip against the Bruins in Boston on Tuesday. ...
Rangers C Chris Mueller made his 2014-15 debut. ... The goals by RW
Martin St. Louis and RW Rick Nash were the fastest in Rangers'
history that did not involve an empty-net goal. ... Rangers D Dan
Girardi (laceration) left the game after blocking shot. ... Rangers
D Kevin Klein was hit in the face with a puck in the final seconds
and also departed the contest. ... The Rangers were again without C
Derek Stepan (leg) and D Dan Boyle (hand), and both players aren't
expected back until early November.
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reserved.]
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