The Sharks came out with the same work ethic and received the same level of goaltending Friday night at Madison Square Garden as they did earlier in their road trip in wins over the Chicago Blackhawks, New Jersey Devils, and New York Islanders.
They just couldn’t create any offense.
The Sharks were unable to beat goalie Igor Shesterkin through the first 45 minutes or backup Alexandar Georgiev for the rest of regulation time in a 1-0 loss to the New York Rangers, marking the first time they’ve been shut out in 14 games away from home this season.
Shesterkin made 19 saves before he was injured with 14:52 left in the third period. Georgiev came on in relief and made nine saves as the Rangers won for the ninth time in their last 10 games.
The Sharks also went 0-for-2 on the power play and fell to 3-1-0 on their road trip that ends Sunday in Columbus.
“We got some good looks on Shesterkin and I thought he came up big when he needed to be,” Sharks coach Bob Boughner said. “Even at the end when he got hurt, we generated two or three chances. Just couldn’t solve them. Couldn’t get any offense going.”
Sharks goalie Adin Hill, in his second consecutive solid performance, stopped 15 of 16 shots through the first two periods and finished with 26 saves.
“He played extremely well, gave us a chance to win and that’s what we needed from him tonight,” Boughner said. “He was our best player.”
Hill stopped 24 of 25 shots in the Sharks’ 2-1 overtime win over the Islanders on Thursday, giving him his first win since Nov. 9 when he made 37 saves in a 4-1 Sharks win over the Calgary Flames.
Since then, James Reimer had received the bulk of the work. Hill, meanwhile, was subsequently given tough assignments in games last month against the Colorado Avalanche and Washington Capitals, with the Sharks losing those games 6-2 and 4-0, respectively.
Before he made 16 saves in relief of Reimer on Nov. 26 against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Hill had a .890 save percentage and 3.11 goals-against average. Now he’s up to a .908 save percentage and a 2.58 goals-against average.
“I don’t think his confidence has wavered at all this year,” Sharks captain Logan Couture said of Hill. “He started off really, really well, we didn’t play very well in front of him. But he works extremely hard in practice. He’s a very good goalie. So he’s playing well. Two really good games in a tough situation, back-to-back, when he hasn’t played for a bit.”
Hill was told Thursday night to be ready to go if need be since Reimer was under the weather. Reimer could still be an option to play Sunday.
“It’s nice to play back-to-back once in a while. You get in a bit of a rhythm,” Hill said. “Just just go to bed and get right back at it.
“Obviously we wanted the two points, but I felt like we played a good game. We stuck to our game and we’ve just got to keep going into Columbus.”
The Sharks were looking for their-ever first sweep of the New York-area teams on the same road trip. San Jose beat the Devils 5-2 on Tuesday and the Islanders 2-1 in overtime on Thursday. They began the trip with a 2-0 win over the Blackhawks.
In those three games, Sharks goalies Hill and Reimer combined to stop 85 of 88 shots.
Hill stopped nine of 10 shots in the first period as the Sharks trailed the Rangers 1-0 after 20 minutes on a power-play goal by Ryan Strome.
With Noah Gregor serving a goaltender interference penalty, the Sharks had two chances to clear the puck before the puck found its way to Mika Zibanejad. He found Adam Fox at the point, and he fed Strome, who ripped a slap shot past Hill at the 6:03 mark of the first.
GOOD FOR GOODROW: The Sharks’ game Friday was their first against Barclay Goodrow since they traded him to the Tampa Bay Lightning in Feb. 2020.
It’s not a stretch to say the trade changed Goodrow’s life. He won two Stanley Cup championships with the Lightning in 2020 and 2021 before he signed a six-year, $21.85 million contract with the Rangers in July as an unrestricted free agent.
Boughner said he uses Goodrow as an example to some of the players that are in the AHL now.
Goodrow played most of his first season as a professional with the Sharks – probably before he was ready to become a full-time NHL player – in 2014-15. He spent most of the next two seasons with the Barracuda, honing his game before he cracked the Sharks’ roster out of training camp before the 2017-18 season. He hasn’t played in the AHL since.
“He took the hard road to get here,” Boughner said of Goodrow. “He had some early success and then he got sent back down to the minors. It’s happened a few of our guys this year.
“He figured out what he needs to do as a pro to stick around, now he’s a two-time Stanley Cup champ.”
ROSTER UPDATE: Jonah Gadjovich, injured in the first period of Thursday’s game, was replaced in Friday’s lineup by Lane Pederson
Boughner said X-rays on Gadjovich’s ankle were negative and added Friday afternoon that the forward is considered day-to-day, although he added that Gadjovich is walking in a boot.
Boughner said that Andrew Cogliano, who missed the games vs. the Devils, Islanders and Rangers as he tended to a personal matter, will be available Sunday. Cogliano flew into Ohio on Friday.
