NEW YORK _ There was Chris Kreider, down in the faceoff circle, grabbing his knee after twisting it on a low check from Sharks defenseman Brendan Dillon. It was at the 8:30 mark of the second period Monday night as he slowly glided to the bench.
But the 25-year-old winger _ the hottest Ranger on Broadway _ stayed on the bench, and underscored his fitness just over two minutes later on the power play with Dillon in the box.
Kreider gathered a pass from Ryan McDonagh and sped down the left side, entered the faceoff circle and absolutely wired a shot over the right shoulder of San Jose goalie Martin Jones under the crossbar that gave the Blueshirts a 3-1 lead en route to a 7-4 win that lifted their record to 2-1-0.
Backup Antti Raanta, who blanked the Sharks last October, made 27 saves for the tense victory, as the Sharks battled back to narrow a 5-2 lead to 5-4 before Mats Zuccarello's empty-netter as Jones was leaving for an extra attacker with 1:36 left allowed the Rangers to breathe easier. Michael Grabner's later empty-netter sealed it.
It has been an incredible start to the season for Kreider, who has a goal and assist in each of the team's three games. With the streak, he became the first Ranger to have multipoint games in the first three matches of the season since Bernie Nicholls in 1990. Kreider, by the way, didn't score his third goal last season until Nov. 14.
The two-goal lead was trimmed to one with 10:43 left in the third. Sharks defenseman Paul Martin kept the puck in the Rangers zone at the blue line, got it down low to Joe Pavelski, who notched his second assist of the evening when he found Brent Burns creeping between the circles, and beat Raanta.
But Kevin Hayes, off a terrific cross-ice feed from Jesper Fast, and Jimmy Vesey, after a steal by Zuccarello and a pass from Derek Stepan, scored in a 21-second span to lift the lead to 5-2. The Sharks weren't dead however. Burns scored his second on a wrister with 6:03 left and Pavelski got the Sharks within one with 4:13 left, his fourth point of the game.
To maximize their speed, the Rangers kept their shifts very short during the first 15 minutes of the game, skating through the neutral zone fairly easily and had taken the lead on Marc Staal's first goal of the season, a one-timer from the blue line that zipped under Jones' glove at 12:06. Staal was calling for the puck, and Stepan threaded a pass through traffic.
The Rangers had just eight shots in the period, just missing on some connections and opting for passes that the Sharks broke up. Grabner and Fast sped down on a two-on-one, but Grabner chose not to shoot, and his pass to Fast driving to the crease went astray.
With Mika Zibanejad in the box for high-sticking at 17:16, Burns dove on top of Rick Nash, who had been checked down behind the net, and pinned him as a four-on-two developed the other way. Pavelski's cross-crease pass provided Logan Couture with an easy tap-in with 58 seconds left in the period.
Nash, playing with Kreider and Zibanejad with Pavel Buchnevich sidelined with back spasms, scored his first of the year when McDonagh's shot bounced off the rear boards and Nash, at the right post, knocked the puck in past a surprised Jones at 4:15 of the second.
