Rangers Recap: Sharks crush Rangers 7-3, Rangers winning streak ends at 7
NEW YORK RANGERS POST-GAME NOTES AND QUOTES
October 19, 2009 - New York Rangers 3, San Jose Sharks 7 (Game #9, Home #5)
Click Here For The Official Game Summary
- The Rangers suffered their first home defeat of the season, losing to the San Jose Sharks, 7-3, in front of a sold-out crowd (18,200) at Madison Square Garden.
- New York have sold out 161 consecutive regular season games, dating back to November 5, 2005 against New Jersey; the last regular season non-sellout was October 31, 2005 vs. Montreal (17,697); including the playoffs, the Rangers sellout streak is now at 175 games.
- The Blueshirts dropped to 7-2-0 overall, including a 4-1-0 mark at home; the Rangers are 12-2-0 in their last 14 regular season games at MSG.
- The Rangers converted one of three power play opportunities to extend their streak to seven games (11-30, 36.7%) with at least one goal on the man advantage.
- Rangers Captain Chris Drury opened the game's scoring at 7:17 of the first period, while skating in his 800th career NHL contest.
- Rookie defenseman Michael Del Zotto tallied a power play goal and registered four shots in 15:54 of icetime; entering the contest, he was one of only four rookie defensemen in the last 20 years to score at least eight points in his team's first eight games of the season (Rob Blake - 10, Alexei Zhitnik - 9, and Matt Carle - 8); Del Zotto currently leads all NHL rookies in goals (four) and points (nine) and is tied for second in assists (five), and he leads all league defensemen in points, tied for the lead in defensemen goals and tied for seventh in defensemen assists.
- Sean Avery tied for the game-high with two assists and a plus-two rating.
- Enver Lisin notched a goal with 2:48 remaining in regulation, and has now tallied a goal in each of the last two games.
- Matt Gilroy recorded his first career NHL assist on Lisin's third period goal.
- Ales Kotalik registered a power play assist, and is now tied with Del Zotto for second in the league in power play points (seven).
- The Rangers next practice is scheduled for Wednesday, October 21 (11:00 a.m.), at the MSG Training Center. There is no practice scheduled for tomorrow, October 20.
- The Rangers return to action on Thursday, October 22, when they will face-off against the New Jersey Devils at Madison Square Garden (7:00 p.m.), in an Atlantic Division matchup; the game will be televised live on MSG Network and can be heard on 970 The Apple.
Post game quotes after the jump......
John Tortorella on tonight's game...
"We have some things to work on. Again, the first two periods, we weren't as bad as what the score was at that point. I don't think we were terrible. They score some goals and we don't. Started off fine...put ourselves in penalty problems. To me, watching the game, it wasn't as bad as the score was at that particular time, but we have some things to work on."
Chris Drury on tonight's game...
"We did get off to a good start. We were 2-0, we got some penalties that got us in trouble. The good thing is, no matter, in this league, how bad you lose, it is just one game. It is two points. We have a few days to rebound. We have a big divisional rivalry game on Thursday (vs. New Jersey)."
Vinny Prospal on taking penalties...
"We have been talking about this for some time...about the penalties. If you look at their personnel, this is a team that has a lot of skilled players that capitalize on the power plays and that is what happened tonight. It is something we have to learn from, especially from the penalties."
Brandon Dubinsky on tonight's game...
"It is a game of momentum. We came out, and I thought we had a good start. We had the momentum early. We took a couple of penalties, that killed the momentum and they scored. We just weren't able to get it back. I think that is something we need to learn how to do, is get the momentum back. We just have to learn from this one and make sure we are ready to go for Thursday."
