Quinn gets first win, Rangers top Sharks in overtime

NEW YORK --David Quinn won for the first time as coach of the New York Rangers, 3-2 in overtime against the San Jose Sharks at Madison Square Garden on Thursday.

The players gave him the game puck shortly after Brady Skjei scored at 37 seconds with a shot from inside the left circle for his first NHL overtime goal.
"I wish I could divide the puck into about 45 pieces because it was certainly a great win for us," said Quinn, 52, who is in his first season as an NHL coach. "We needed to feel good about something."
WATCH: [All Sharks vs. Rangers highlights]
Brendan Smith tied it 2-2 at 17:21 of the third period. Brett Howden also scored, and Henrik Lundqvist made 41 saves for New York.
The Rangers (1-3-0) avoided losing at least four in a row to start the season for the first time since 1998-99, when they started 0-4-1.
"You want to play with urgency all the time, but we really wanted this first win," Skjei said. "It was huge. We felt we could have won at least one or two, but we knew we needed to get one here quick. That was a big win for us."

San Jose (2-2-1) got goals from Marcus Sorensen and Joonas Donskoi, and Aaron Dell, who started for the second straight game, made 24 saves. Brent Burns had two assists.
The Sharks outshot the Rangers 43-27, including 33-15 in the first two periods. They have outshot their five opponents 192-126 this season.
"You have to tip your hat to Lundqvist, he's a great goalie and that was a great effort by him keeping them in it through 40 minutes," Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. "You knew they were going to push at some point. They're a good team and they're trying for their first win. They pushed in the third, but the shots were 11-10 [in favor of the Rangers], so it wasn't like we sat back. Just one of those games, not much you can do."
Sorensen gave San Jose a 1-0 lead with the first shorthanded goal of his NHL career at 4:31 of the first period. Sorensen, playing in his 56th NHL game, made an inside-outside move on Skjei and scored with a shot into the top-right corner from the left circle.

New York tied it 1-1 on Howden's goal at 13:52. The rookie center got the puck in the slot with his back to the net and scored with a no-look, between-the-legs, backhanded shot through Dell's legs.
The Sharks challenged for offside, but the goal was upheld after a lengthy video review.
Howden has points in three straight games (two goals, one assist). His ice time has increased in each of his first four NHL games, from 10:36 to 12:31 to 15:53 to 17:34. Mats Zuccarello was the only Rangers forward who logged more ice time (17:57) than Howden against San Jose.

"He's earned it," Quinn said of Howden. "He's built up a bank account in a short period of time. I gather if you ask all the other 12 forwards who they want to play with, he's at the top of the list right now."
San Jose took a 2-1 lead at 4:59 of the second period when Donskoi capped a 3-on-1 rush by scoring from the right side off a pass from Antti Suomela.
Smith's game-tying goal was his first NHL goal since Jan. 14.

They said it

"I thought our whole group was good. There weren't many guys that weren't going tonight. We could have had five or six [goals]. As a coach, you've got to realistically look at it. We would have loved two points. We probably deserved two points, but those games are going to happen over a long season. We're doing a lot more right than wrong right now." -- Sharks coach Peter DeBoer
"It's about winning. You've got to win. This is a get-it-done profession. People wonder why you don't win. You either win or you don't. Obviously, a lot has been made of the situation we're in from the rebuild situation, but you want to win hockey games. Tonight feels good. We needed to feel good about ourselves, so let's see how we handle it." -- Rangers coach David Quinn

Need to know

Lundqvist has stopped 97 of 103 shots in three starts this season (.942 save percentage). He has 432 NHL wins, five away from tying Hall of Famer Jacques Plante for seventh on the NHL's all-time wins list. … Prior to Thursday, the last time the Rangers had defensemen score the game-tying goal in the final five minutes of regulation and the game-winning goal in overtime was March 24, 2014 against the Arizona Coyotes, when Dan Girardi scored the tying goal at 16:32 of the third period, and Ryan McDonagh scored the winner at 1:56 of overtime to give New York a 4-3 win.

What's next

Sharks: At the New Jersey Devils on Sunday (1 p.m. ET; SN, MSG+, NBCSCA, NHL.TV)
Rangers:Host the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday (1 p.m. ET; MSG, SNW, NHL.TV)