The Associated Press
NEW YORK—Antti Raanta was just looking to get a win in his N.Y. Rangers’ debut.
He did much more than that.
Raanta stopped all 22 shots he faced to become just the fourth goalie in franchise history to get a shutout in his first start with the team, leading the Rangers to a 4-0 victory over the San Jose Sharks last night.
Earning his fourth career shutout, Raanta joined Hal Winkler (1926), John Ross Roach (1928), and Marcel Paille (1957) as the only goaltenders to blank an opponent in his first start with the Rangers.
“The only thing I was thinking was to win,” said Raanta, who was playing for the first time since being acquired from Chicago in a draft-day trade back in June.
“Our guys defended so well.”
Marc Staal, Mats Zuccarello, Jesper Fas,t and Viktor Stalberg scored for New York, which snapped a three-game winless streak (0-2-1) after opening the season with three wins.
“Everyone in the room knows that the level we were playing at isn’t acceptable,” Staal said.
“It’s something we wanted to take care of.”
Martin Jones finished with 24 saves in his first loss of the season as the Sharks lost their second-straight after opening the season with four wins.
Jones had allowed just two goals in the Sharks season-opening winning streak and came in leading the NHL in GAA (0.49), save percentage (.982), and shutouts (two).
“We lost pretty much every facet of the game,” said Sharks’ coach Pete DeBoer.
“There’s a price to pay to win and the other team was more willing to pay that price than us so we got what we deserved,” he reasoned.
Rangers’ coach Alain Vigneault opted to keep the same forward lines and defence pairings that only could score once in the 2-1 overtime loss to the New Jersey Devils on Sunday.
Vigneault’s gambit paid immediate dividends as Staal scored his first of the season 10:36 into the game.
