Only for Guild Members » The Sharks honored Jonathan Cheechoo

NEW YORK (AP) The New York Islanders invariably raise their game against the Rangers. This time they kept that trend – and a winning streak – against their crosstown rivals going with a shutout.Jaroslav Halak had a season-high 50 saves for his first shutout of the season in a 3-0 victory over the Rangers on Thursday night.Halak was masterful as the Islanders beat the Rangers for the third time in three meetings this season Authentic Jordan Eberle Jersey , and 10th of the last 11. Josh Bailey, Jordan Eberle and Thomas Hickey each scored and rookie sensation Mathew Barzal had three assists to help the Islanders move into a tie with Columbus one point behind Carolina for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference.Article continues below ...”This felt like a playoff atmosphere. It was intense,” the 20-year-old Barzal said. ”And Jaro has been our backbone. He made a lot of key saves. That was a must-win for us.”Halak, who faced 51 shots in a 4-1 home loss to Columbus on Tuesday night, had 15 saves in the first period, 14 in the second and another 21 in the third for his 42nd career shutout.Halak’s effort was the most saves for any goaltender this season in a shutout and one shy of the franchise record set by Glenn Healy on Jan. 16, 1990, against Vancouver.Halak said weariness is not a factor despite the barrage of shots he has faced in recent games.”I feel fine. It’s all about managing between games and getting enough rest,” said the 32-year-old netminder who improved to 18-18-4 this season.Henrik Lundqvist finished with 32 saves for the Rangers, who have lost six of eight overall and dropped to 0-4-1 in five visits to Barclays Center since the Islanders moved to the Brooklyn arena in 2015. The Rangers remained four points behind the Hurricanes Josh Bailey Jersey , who lost at New Jersey.The Rangers are 3-9-0 in their last 12 games as expectations grow they will make significant moves by the Feb. 26 trade deadline.”Last few weeks, slowly we are moving in the wrong direction not getting enough points,” Lundqvist said. ”The way things are going, it’s hard for us to score goals.”Bailey opened the scoring at 4:53 of first period with a power-play goal for his 15th goal of the season with Rangers defenseman Brady Skjei in the penalty box for tripping.”Getting the lead on the power play was nice and obviously Jaro was good,” Islanders coach Doug Weight said. ”It feels really good for him. Hopefully we can build on that.”Eberle made it 2-0 at 15:06 of the second when fired a loose puck past Lundqvist for his 20th. Nick Leddy got his second assist of the game on the goal.Hickey increased the lead to 3-0 at 3:57 of the third period with his third goal of the year on which Barzal recorded his third assist of the night.”Their goaltender has played extremely well against us. Tonight we had a real strong game and we weren’t able to get anything past him,” Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said. ”I didn’t like the results but we worked real hard and did a lot of good things out there.”Barzal has nine assists in his last four games and 25 points in last 17 contests. The 20-year-old center has 16 goals and 46 assists for 62 points, most among rookies this season. He also has three goals and six assists in the three games against the Rangers.”Mathew is a great talent. He made some really great plays and certainly contributed to the win,” Weight added. ”We’ll take it.”NOTES: The Rangers have scored two goals or fewer in eight of last 12 games. … The teams meet again Brooklyn on April 5. … The Islanders scratched F Jason Chimera for the first time this season. He was replaced by Tanner Fritz. … The Islanders also scratched F Alan Quine and D Sebastian Aho. … The Rangers scratched F Paul Carey and injured D Ryan McDonagh. …. The Rangers were also without injured forwards Chris Kreider and Pavel Buchnevich and defensemen Marc Staal and Steven Kampfer. …. Hickey’s goal gave him 100 points for his career.UP NEXTRangers: At Ottawa on Saturday.Islanders: At Carolina on Friday night. SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) Evander Kane has done a good job tormenting the Calgary Flames with his goal-scoring prowess and physical play.Kane scored twice to give him six goals in his past two games against Calgary and got into two scrums as the San Jose Sharks won their seventh straight game, beating the Flames 5-1 on Saturday.”I’m not a guy to shy away from the physical part of the game Brady Skjei Jersey ,” Kane said. ”That’s a big part of hockey in my mind and a lot of people’s. You don’t see fighting as much anymore. But at the same time I think it’s very necessary and sometimes it calls for it.”Kane followed up his four-goal effort in Calgary a week ago with another impactful performance, scoring a short-handed goal in the second period to give the Sharks a 3-1 lead and an insurance goal in the third. He also used his physical play to get into a scrum with Mikael Backlund and a fight with Travis Hamonic.The Sharks improved to 10-2 since acquiring Kane just before the trade deadline last month, including this current streak that is the longest for San Jose since a seven-gamer from March 25 to April 5, 2013.”This is the time of year you want to be playing well, you want to get hot,” coach Peter DeBoer said. ”For me it’s about our game. The results are nice, the wins are nice. Out of the seven games this was probably the sloppiest of the seven but we found a way to win.”Brenden Dillon, Jannik Hansen and Justin Braun also scored for the Sharks, who moved six points ahead of Los Angeles in the race for home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs. The Kings played later Saturday in Edmonton. Martin Jones made 37 saves.Michael Stone scored the lone for the Flames, who have lost five straight to fall out of the playoff race. Calgary trails Anaheim by nine points for the final playoff spot with just six games remaining. David Rittich made 28 saves.The Flames have been outscored 25-7 during the skid despite outshooting the opponent each game.”It seems like we’re leading the NHL in moral victories but it’s not getting us any points right now http://www.officialblackhawksproshop.com/authentic-adidas-artem-anisimov-jersey ,” forward Troy Brouwer said. ”It resulted in another loss where we actually had really good stretches during the game but ultimately no results.”The Flames were controlling the play in the second period before Kane’s goal turned the momentum back in San Jose’s favor. Calgary held San Jose without a shot on goal for more than six minutes to start the period and had just started a power play when Kane struck for his goal.Chris Tierney skated into the offensive zone and held the puck near the net as Johnny Gaudreau skated past Kane, who was set up in front of the crease. Tierney then slid a pass to Kane, who knocked it into the open net for his sixth goal with the Sharks and 26th on the season.Kane then had his run-ins with the Flames late in the second and early in the third before the Sharks broke it open with goals from Braun and Kane midway through the third period.Dillon, who assisted on Kane’s second goal, then got into a fight late in the game with Garnet Hathaway to complete the Gordie Howe hat trick.The Sharks started fast and scored twice in a span of 74 seconds midway through the first period with goals by Dillon and Hansen.The Flames got one back with a blast from the point through traffic by Stone.NOTES: The Sharks honored Jonathan Cheechoo, who recently announced his retirement. … Brent Burns‘ assist on Hansen’s goal was his 49th of the season, breaking the record he set two years ago for Sharks defensemen. … Flames F Matthew Tkachuk (upper body) and D TJ Brodie did not make the trip for the two games in California.UP NEXTFlames: Visit Los Angeles on MondaySharks: Visit Chicago on Monday.—