Sharks 2023-24 Game 25 Recap: Rangers 6, Sharks 5 (12/3/24)

 The Sharks displayed great effort and resilience against the Rangers in New York, but the Rangers gained the upper hand and prevailed 6-5. 

Early in the first period, a cross-ice saucer pass from Kyle Burroughs set up Anthony Duclair to score his sixth goal of the season on the breakaway to put the Sharks on the board. Later in the opening period, Artemi Panarin scored scored on the power play to even things up at one. Soon after, the Sharks went back up by one via Ryan Carpenter’s first goal of the season from Jan Rutta, followed up by Artemi Panarin’s second goal of the game to tie it at two. The Rangers would then grab their first lead of the game via Mika Zibanejad to give the Rangers a 3-2 lead before the end of the first period. 

The Sharks evened it up at three in the second period on the man advantage via Jacob MacDonald from Kevin Labanc and Mike Hoffman. Before that, Mikael Granlund had a few great scoring chances, but Jonathan Quick made a sprawling stop and Granlund couldn’t get a grip on the puck after taking a few more whacks at the net. Mackenzie Blackwood made an incredible save on Alexis Lafreniere’s penalty shot, which was awarded to Lafreniere after Matt Benning took him down on his way to the net. Later in the middle frame, the Rangers went ahead 4-3 via Will Cuylle. 

In the third period, it was all downhill from there for the Sharks for a bit, with Artemi Panarin scoring his third goal of the game and completing the hat trick along with K’Andre Miller scoring to give the Rangers a three-goal lead. However, the Sharks remained resilient, scoring the next two goals late in the third period on Fabian Zetterlund’s seventh goal of the season from Mikael Granlund and Anthony Duclair, and Alexander Barabanov’s first goal of the season from Calen Addison and Tomas Hertl to get the Sharks back within one. Although the Sharks showed tremendous effort late in the third, these last two goals were simply not enough as the Rangers held on to win 6-5 and retain the best record in the NHL. 

Mackenzie Blackwood was back in net for Team Teal, recording 30 saves on 36 shots against. Prior to this game, the Sharks activated Alexander Barabanov and Jan Rutta off of the IR and placed Nico Sturm and Ty Emberson on the IR with lower-body injuries. In addition, Nikolai Knyzhov was placed on waivers yesterday, cleared waivers, and was re-assigned to the Barracuda in the AHL. 

The Sharks face the other New York team, the Islanders, at UBS Arena in their next game on Tuesday at 4:30 pm PT. 

Sources: NBC Sports Bay Area/California, NHL App 

You can further support my blogs by checking out my merch (sample pictured below): CPF Store