Sharks snap Rangers' seven-game win streak with 7-3 win

October 19, 9:40 PMNew York Rangers ExaminerRob Cristino

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The Sharks were too much for Valiquette and the Rangers (AP Photo).

The New York Rangers were looking for their eighth-straight victory of the season, after dropping the season opener, but the San Jose Sharks, a team considered to be one of the best in the West, had other plans.

With a dominating 7-3 victory, the Sharks improved to 5-3-1 on the season and outplayed the Rangers after getting off to a slow first period start.

Once again, the Rangers had looked impressive in the opening period, but their play diminished significantly as the game carried on. After shocking the Sharks by scoring the first two goals of the game, from Chris Drury and Michael Del Zotto, the Sharks recovered with two late period goals from Brad Staubitz and Dany Heatley.

It all went downhill from there, as the Sharks would score a total of six unanswered goals to put the Rangers away with ease.

Taking bad penalties is one way to give a team momentum (along with too many turnovers) and the Rangers did plenty of that for San Jose through the first two periods of play. It seemed that Christopher Higgins' first period penalty really turned the game around for San Jose.

Steve Valiquette was given his second start of the season, as Rangers head coach John Tortorella is committed to giving Henrik Lundqvist more days off with the Olympics coming into play in February.

“I have no plan, I go day to day,” Tortorella said in a pre-game interview with Andrew Gross. “Henrik’s not going to have the amount he has in prior years, the Olympics comes into it, too, there’s another five games there. My thinking is that Valley is going to play more this year and we need to find him games. I’m not hesitant to put him in. Hank was a big part of our success the last couple of games, it’s not like he’s tired. I looked at this and thought it was a good start for Valley."

Valiquette had shutout the Anaheim Ducks in a 3-0 win on Sunday Oct. 11, stopping all 18 shots that he faced, but Monday night against the Sharks was a totally different story.

Valiquette allowed five goals on just 18 shots through two periods, before being replaced by Lundqvist. Tortorella started Lundqvist in the third period, but by then, the game was out of hand. Lundqvist stopped 10-of-12 shots faced in the third.

Their opposition, Evgeni Nabokov made 26 saves on the night and kept his game together after the Rangers' quick start in the first period.

The Rangers will host the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night at 7:00 PM.