Sharks Hertl Over Rangers

Rookie Tomas Hertl’s four goals power San Jose to a 9-2 drubbing over reeling Rangers

By Marcus White

Taking advantage of a tired New York Rangers squad coming off of a 3-1 win in Los Angeles the night before, the San Jose Sharks dominated Tuesday night’s contest with the Blueshirts. Rookies Tomas Hertl and Matthew Nieto led the way for the Sharks, scoring four goals and three points, respectively, in only their third NHL contest.

Tony Avelar/Associated Press

Early on, the Rangers took advantage of a sloppy start by San Jose, as Brad Richards scored a power-play goal 3:27 into the first period. An elbowing penalty called against Brad Stuart and a too many men on the ice penalty 20 seconds later put San Jose down two men, and the Rangers took advantage. That lead wouldn’t last for long, as Sharks’ defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic fired a wrist shot past Lundqvist to even the scoring 56 seconds later. A fortuitous bounce off of the referee caromed to Joe Pavelski, who found Vlasic wide open at the point for the shorthanded goal.

Less than four minutes later, Dan Boyle put the Sharks up 2-1. Pavelski won the faceoff back to Matthew Nieto, who dished to Boyle at the opposite faceoff circle and recorded his first NHL point with his assist on the play. A save from Henrik Lundqvist on Logan Couture’s shorthanded breakaway and a blocked shot by Dan Girardi on Patrick Marleau’s wraparound attempt kept the score 2-1 going into the second period.

San Jose opened the floodgates in the second, scoring four goals in a four minute, 16 second span. Nieto, the Sharks’ first ever California-born draft pick, made it 3-1 on the first goal of his young career off of a Tommy Wingels’ shot deflected by the Rangers’ defense. Not to be outdone, fellow rookie Tomas Hertl capitalized on a beautiful centering feed from Andrew Desjardins, and put the Sharks up 4-1.That goal would mark the end of Lundqvist’s night, but just the beginning of Hertl’s.

20 seconds later, Logan Couture batted a puck out of mid-air and off of Rangers backup Martin Biron to make it 5-1 in favor of the Sharks. Hertl would make it 6-1 off of a beautiful lead pass from Joe Thornton, as he froze Biron with a Charlie Conway-esque triple deke and beat Biron five-hole. Both goals were the result of fortuitous bounces in San Jose’s favor. Patrick Marleau’s high and wide shot bounced off the end boards directly towards Couture on his goal, and Dan Boyle’s broken stick provided a breakout pass to Thornton on Hertl’s goal.

For much of the third period, it looked as if the score was going to remain unchanged. Derek Dorsett put the Rangers back on the board eight minutes and 22 seconds into the third with a beautiful backhander that froze Sharks’ goalie Antti Niemi. But just 40 seconds later, Hertl stole the spotlight. With the Sharks on the power play, Tyler Kennedy attempted to find Jason Demers cutting in from the point, but the hard pass deflected off of Demers and right to Hertl, who corralled the loose puck in front and fired it past Biron.

A hair over three minutes later, Hertl scored his fourth goal of the night and easily the goal of the year on a Marek Malik-like, between the legs goal that beat Biron over his right shoulder. It was a historic, highlight-reel goal for the Czech rookie, as he became the fourth-youngest rookie in NHL history to score four goals in a game, and only the second player in Sharks history to accomplish the feat. Making the night even more special for the 19-year-old was the presence of his mother and girlfriend, visiting from the Czech Republic. Justin Braun would put the margin of defeat at seven for the Rangers three minutes and 48 seconds later, as Matthew Nieto redirected a cross-ice pass from Tommy Wingels right to Braun for his second assist and third point of the night.

Adding injury to insult for the Rangers tonight was the departure of superstar Rick Nash due to a likely concussion. After being elbowed by Brad Stuart early in the game, Nash skated a few shifts for the remainder of the first period, but didn’t return after the first intermission. After the game, Nash complained of headaches to the media and saying Stuart’s hit “was a head shot.” Stuart will have a phone hearing with the department of player safety because of the hit, and could see supplemental discipline.

It was a special night for the Sharks and their duo of talented rookies, as Nieto and Hertl combined for seven points on the night. The Sharks look to extend their three-game winning streak in their first road game of the year at Vancouver on Thursday. The Rangers, meanwhile, will have to put this loss behind them as they look to bounce back against Anaheim, also playing on Thursday.