Rangers defeat Sharks for seventh win in eight games

NEW YORK --Igor Shesterkin made 44 saves for the New York Rangers in a 3-2 win against the San Jose Sharks at Madison Square Garden on Saturday.

Jesper Fast scored two goals, and Artemi Panarin had two assists to extend his point streak to nine games for the Rangers (33-24-4), who have won three games in a row and seven of their past eight.
Shesterkin is 7-0-0 with a 2.03 goals-against average and .945 save percentage in his past seven starts. He made 27 saves in a 5-2 win against the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday.
"It feels great," Shesterkin said. "I like when there's a lot of shots, but it doesn't matter how many shots there are, you always have to be prepared and help the team win."
WATCH: [All Sharks vs. Rangers highlights]
The Rangers are four points behind the Hurricanes, New York Islanders and Columbus Blue Jackets for the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
Joe Thornton scored twice for the Sharks (26-31-4), who have lost three in a row. Aaron Dell made 30 saves.
"I thought I played fairly good most of the time," Dell said. "They had a couple decent chances, especially in the second (period), a breakaway and a penalty shot and stuff, but I felt pretty good about my game."

Fast scored his second of the night to give the Rangers a 3-2 lead at 6:54 of the third period.
"I just drived to the net," he said. "Tried to take [the defenseman] with me, and somehow I was wide alone, and I think I had one, two three whacks at it, so it was a good bounce."
New York's Mika Zibanejad tied the game 2-2 at 17:27 of the second when he scored off a pass from Panarin, who stole the puck from Evander Kane behind the San Jose net.
"It was a really good stick on a forecheck, and I was actually going to meet him -- I think it was Kane who had the puck -- I was going to meet him on the other side, and then I see the poke from [Panarin] and the puck found me this time, and it was nice," Zibanejad said.

Thornton gave the Sharks a 2-1 lead at 13:47 of the second when a point shot by Brent Burns deflected off him on the power play.
Thornton tied it 1-1 at 17:55 of the first with a slap shot from the left face-off circle for his first goal in 15 games.
"The (first) one, [Timo Meier] just made a nice play and I just kind of pounded it, and the second one, [Burns'] shot just tipped off my knee pad, so just at the right place at the right time," Thornton said.

Fast gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead at 9:35 of the first when he tapped in a pass from Panarin, who has four goals and eight assists during his point streak.
The Sharks outshot the Rangers 22-3 in the first period.
"You couldn't have a better first period than we had," San Jose coach Bob Boughner said. "I thought that we threw a lot at [Shesterkin], a lot of chances. … The personnel that we have in there, we have to almost play a perfect or near-to-perfect game when you are only scoring one or two a night."
The Rangers outshot the Sharks 30-24 in the second and third.
"Obviously, we weren't happy with it at all," Zibanejad said of New York's start. "It was really disappointing, especially the way we played yesterday. It's not the way we wanted, but I think the way we responded to it, we did enough to win today."

They said it

"You're not going to play 82 great games at this time of year. You have to find a way to win, and I give our guys a lot of credit. They really weren't happy after the first period and nobody was feeling good about what was going on, and we were able to grind our way through it." -- Rangers coach David Quinn
"It starts with good attitude. We have young guys in here that are going to feed off this energy, so they look up to us veteran guys to keep a good attitude, keep a good mindset and you know, we're doing the best we can." -- Sharks center Joe Thornton

Need to know

Shesterkin is the first goalie in Rangers history win nine of his first 10 NHL games. ... Thornton ended a 50-game goal drought on the road. He had not scored away from SAP Center since Dec. 31, 2018, against the Calgary Flames. ... The Rangers are 29-10-3 with one tie against the Sharks. ... Kane was minus-2 with four shots on goal in 12:19 in his return from a three-game suspension for elbowing Winnipeg Jets defenseman Neal Pionk. ... Dell made the save against Julien Gauthier on a penalty shot with 1:26 remaining in the second period. ... Sharks forward Melker Karlsson did not play after sustaining a lower-body injury blocking a shot in a 2-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Thursday. He is day to day.

What's next

Sharks: At the New York Islanders on Sunday (Nassau Coliseum; 5 p.m. ET; ESPN+, MSG+, NBCSCA, NHL.TV)
Rangers: At the New York Islanders on Tuesday (Nassau Coliseum; 7 p.m. ET; ESPN+, MSG+ 2, MSG, NHL.TV)