Sharks Bite Rangers

After years of frustration and futility, the San Jose Sharks finally beat the New York Rangers.

Jeff Friesen and Patrick Marleau scored power-play goals 30 seconds apart in the second period as the Sharks beat the Rangers for the first time, 2-1 Tuesday night.

Steve Shields stopped 26 shots as the Sharks beat the Rangers for the first time in 16 tries. San Jose is 1-13-2 against New York.

The Sharks (7-2) have won four straight overall and lead the NHL with 14 points.

The Rangers continued to struggled on the power play, going 1-for-5. For the season, they are 4-for-45 with the man advantage.

"Our power play killed us," said Rangers forward Valeri Kamensky. "Penalties also killed us."

Kamensky scored the only goal for New York at 5:29 of the opening period. Stationed in the lower left circle, Kamensky took Theoren Fleury's cross-ice pass and wristed a high shot to the short side.

The Sharks dominated play in the second period, scoring two power-play goals to take a 2-1 lead.

With Brian Leetch off for tripping and Stephane Quintal off for roughing, Friesen tied the game at 3:07 when he banged home a pass from Owen Nolan. Thirty seconds later, Marleau beat Richter with a rising wrist shot.

"The whole momentum just switched around," Rangers coach John Muckler said. "They took charge in the second period."

Nolan has at least one point in all nine games the Sharks have played and he leads the league in scoring with 16 points.

The Rangers regained the momentum in the final period, but couldn't beat Shields.

With about one second left, Kamensky had a chance to fire a loose puck home during a scramble, but Nolan got his stick on the puck and deflected it aside. The puck did go in the net, but about a second after the final buzzer went off.

"t was a good thing there wasn't another second left on the clock," Shields said. "That was close."

The win puts the Sharks five games over .500 for the first time in franchise history.

"We're a different hockey team than we were in the past," Sharks forward Mike Ricci said. "We have a good mix here, and are playing a good system."

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