Celebrini scores twice for Sharks in win against Rangers

SAN JOSE -- Macklin Celebrini scored two goals, and the San Jose Sharks defeated the New York Rangers 3-1 at SAP Center on Friday.

"More maturity in our game in the third, I liked that," Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. "We played with some better winning habits in the third. Not so much in the second half of that second period. We weren't very good as far as our details with the puck [and] without the puck, so I'm glad we kind of locked it in there."

Pavol Regenda also scored for the Sharks (26-21-3), who are 3-2-0 in their past five games. Will Smith and Collin Graf each had two assists, and Alex Nedeljkovic made 28 saves to win his fifth straight start.

Sam Carrick scored the only goal for the Rangers (21-25-6), who have lost three straight and eight of their past nine games (1-7-1). Spencer Martin made 28 saves.

"You can't start a game like that," Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said after New York gave up three goals in the first eight minutes. "Spot a team a couple of goals and then take seven penalties along the way, and think you're going to give yourself the best chance to win. It's just not a recipe for success."

Celebrini put the Sharks ahead 1-0 1:09 into the first period with a power-play goal. Tyler Toffoli had the puck on the goal line to the right of Martin, and his cross-crease pass deflected off Celebrini's skate and into the net.

"I think we've been frustrated with how our power play has been going," Celebrini said. "We want it to be a difference maker for our group and help our group win games, and we haven't really done that the last couple of games."

Regenda pushed it to 2-0 with another power-play goal at 3:08. Michael Misa, while tied up on the left boards, found Regenda wide open in the slot, and his backhand shot went over Martin's blocker.

"I was really surprised," Regenda said. "Sometimes it's better when you just close your eyes and just put it there. We had a couple of drills yesterday, I felt pretty good, so I was like, OK, I'll go try, and it worked out."

Celebrini scored his second goal to make it 3-0 at 7:37. Graf bumped a pass down the left boards to Smith, and his backhand pass found Celebrini in the slot for a one-timer.

"I kind of peeked right before Graf passed me that," Smith said. "He was kind of far away, so I just used my intuition. I thought he was there."

Carrick scored for the Rangers to make it 3-1 at 12:50. After a puck rebounded in front of Nedeljkovic, Carrick spun around and got the puck through the five-hole and in.

"Weren't quite ready to play. You feel like you are, but they come out flying," Rangers forward J.T. Miller said. "They draw two penalties. They capitalize. The building was rocking. I don't know, we just kind of beat ourselves."

NOTES: The Sharks' 26 wins are their most through 50 games of a season since 2018-19 (28). ... Celebrini recorded his seventh career multigoal period, passing Devin Setoguchi (six) and Brent Burns (six) for sole possession of the eighth most in franchise history. ... Celebrini (19 years, 224 days) opened the scoring and became the second-youngest active player to reach 50 career goals behind only Sidney Crosby (19 years, 120 days).