Erik Karlsson scored 49 seconds into overtime as the San Jose Sharks beat the New York Rangers 3-2 on Thursday for their first victory of the season.
Timo Meier collected a loose puck beside the Rangers’ net, circled behind, and then found an open Karlsson, who fired it into an open net past an out-of-position Igor Shesterkin for their first win of the David Quinn era.
Logan Couture and Radim Simek both scored and Sharks goalie James Reimer finished with 21 saves as the Sharks evened their record on this four-game road trip at 1-1-0.
Couture scored a first-period power-play goal to give the Sharks a lead for the fifth straight game. After the Rangers got even-strength goals from Filip Chytil and Artemi Panarin to take a 2-1 lead, the Sharks’ got a huge goal from Simek at the 13:10 mark of the second to tie the game.
Simek took a pass from Matt Nieto, eluded two Rangers skaters, and beat Shesterkin with a shot from the slot for his first goal since Dec. 28, 2021.
In the second period this season, the Sharks have now been outscored 14-3 and outshot 83-42. Still, considering how they had to play from behind in every other third period this season, a 2-2 tie after 40 minutes wasn’t the worst thing.
Reimer had 19 saves in the first two periods, as he made his fourth start of the season.
The Sharks finish the road trip with games against New Jersey and Philadelphia on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
Special teams played a big role for the Sharks early on, as they killed all four penalties they took in the first period to improve to 19-for-19 on the PK this season.
Sharks coach David Quinn has remained positive with his messaging to the team in the last two days since he watched his team lose 5-2 to the New York Islanders on Tuesday.
Asked how he stays positive after a 0-5-0 start, Quinn said, “Because I believe in this group, we as coaches, and I said that to them. I said, ‘hopefully you guys think you’re as good as we think you are, and I know we’re not that far off.’
“There’s a lot of belief within the staff and they need to feel the same amount of confidence that we feel in them. That’s the only way we’re going get out of this.”
At the start of practice Wednesday in New York, Quinn took a few extra minutes to give his team a pep talk of sorts. He said there are things the Sharks have done well, just for not long enough stretches to put them in a better position to win.
“One of the things we tell them is we’re not that far off,” Quinn said. “I know it feels like we are, but we’re really not.”
One of the points Quinn stressed to the Sharks was to not get deflated when the opposition scores a goal. The Sharks before Thursday had never come back to re-take the lead after they’ve fallen behind, and have trailed after two periods in every game so far.
“You can see when a goal is scored on us, it’s almost like, ‘here we go again,’ regardless of the score, even if it’s 1-1 or 2-2,” Quinn said. “We’ve got to shake ourselves out of that and we’ve got to become a more confident group, and the only way to do that is to do things right over and over again.
SCRATCHES: Forward Kevin Labanc was among the Sharks’ scratches Thursday. Labanc, who was born in Brooklyn and raised on Staten Island, started the season on the Sharks’ second line but had just 10:09 in ice time in Tuesday’s game. Also scratched were winger Noah Gregor and defenseman Scott Harrington.
QUINN’S RETURN: A message, ‘Thank You, David Quinn,’ that was shown on the video board at Madison Square Garden partway through the first period was greeted with jeers by Rangers fans in attendance. Quinn, 56, coached the Rangers from 2018 to 2021 before he was fired by team president and general manager Chris Drury.
Quinn took over the team as it was about to begin a rebuild and had a 96-87-25 record in three seasons. The Rangers were part of the 2020 NHL postseason but lost in the play-in round to the Carolina Hurricanes.
Last season in their first year under coach Gerard Gallant, the Rangers advanced to the Eastern Conference final.
“When I took the job, it was clear from a timeline standpoint that the fourth year was going to be the year we might be able to make a big improvement due to our cap situation,” Quinn said Thursday morning. “My last year in New York we had 18 and a half million dollars of dead cap money. We just didn’t have the depth. We were building toward it.”
