WASHINGTON -- The San Jose Sharks dont have an explanation for their continued success against the Washington Capitals. Chris Kreider Rangers Jersey . Coming off a shutout loss at home, theyre just happy to have the two points. Patrick Marleau scored the only goal of the shootout, lifting the Sharks to a 2-1 victory over the Capitals on Tuesday night, improving San Jose to 17-1 against Washington in the teams last 18 meetings. "Theres no special ingredient," Marleau said. "I think its just one of those things thats been going our way for a while. Theyre always tight games so it could easily go both ways." Sharks coach Todd McClellan doesnt see a pattern either. "I dont have an explanation. Its always been different circumstances," he said after winning the teams first meeting since Feb. 13, 2012. After losing 1-0 to Boston on Saturday, the Sharks rebounded to take the opener of a three-game road trip. "Its nice to start off the trip the right way," McClellan said. "It was kind of a back and forth affair. They had some momentum (early) but we gained it back." Antti Niemi stopped Eric Fehr, Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom in the shootout after making 35 saves in regulation and overtime. Marleau tallied after Joe Pavelski missed on San Joses first shot. Ovechkin scored his league-leading 33rd goal at 12:44 of the second period after Tyler Kennedy had tallied for San Jose at 13:30 of the first. Rookie goaltender Philipp Grubauer, making his 12th start in 17 games, made 28 saves for Washington. "I thought the whole team played very well," Capitals coach Adam Oates said. "Hard fought game; great pace to it. Obviously, didnt come through in the shootout, but it was a good hockey game." It was the Capitals second straight 2-1 shootout loss and they have lost six of their last eight. "It was a good test for us," Ovechkin said of the Sharks. "A good team. Theyve been together for a long time. I think we had good chances to win the game in regular time, in the third period, but we got the point." The Capitals got their only power play with 1:15 left in regulation when Marleau was called for hooking, but Niemi made a pair of saves on Ovechkin in the final minute and San Jose killed off the remainder of the penalty in overtime. "Nemo was real good," McLellan said. "The power play at the end, he had to make some big saves to give us a chance to get into overtime. He did that." San Jose led 1-0 after a first period in which Washington went over 10 minutes without a shot on goal during one stretch. The Capitals actually had an early 7-1 advantage in shot, but Niemi made several good stops, including a glove save on wrister by Backstrom in the slot during a 3-on-2. "We know we arent going to score on every shift out there, but we are doing the right thing and hopefully it will bounce with us next game," Backstrom said. "It will come if we just keep working. I think it will come." San Jose broke on top at 13:30. Following a Washington turnover, Kennedy deflected a Jason Demers pass by Grubauer from high in the slot for his fourth goal of the season. The Sharks came in having scored an NHL-best 51 first-period goals while allowing the fewest (22). The Capitals controlled play for much of the second period and made it 1-1 at the 12:44 mark. Ovechkin, the NHL goals leader, was held without a shot for the first 32 minutes but his first one found the net. He took a pass from Karl Alzer in the left circle and fired over Niemis shoulder. "We tried to.we were aware of him, but theyve got so many offensive weapons that if you overplay a certain individual somebody else will hurt you," McLellan said. "He still got one. It goes to show what a great release he has, (he) scored from a pretty bad angle, but it was a helluva shot." Ovechkin has six points in his last six games. With San Jose in the Washington zone late in the period, Brad Stuart poked the puck past Grubauer, but the replay showed time had expired. NOTES: San Jose D Matt Irwin returned after missing two games with an upper-body injury. . Washingtons Aaron Volpatti and Mike Brown of the Sharks bloodied each other and the ice during a short, fierce fight midway through the first period. . Washingtons last nine home games have been decided by one goal, with six going to overtime. Jimmy Vesey Rangers Jersey . When a game is in the balance, however, they still have the personnel and the experience to end up with the two points. Antti Raanta Rangers Jersey . Gerald Green and Miles Plumlee? Green had bounced around the NBA when he wasnt playing overseas. The Pacers gave up on Plumlee after just one season. Now Green and Plumlee are key cogs in the Suns surprising breakout season.The New York Rangers bottled up the Montreal Canadiens and squeezed out a 1-0 win in Game Six to take the Eastern Conference Final, four games to two. After controlling play early, the Rangers didnt get on the board until 1:53 remaining in the second period, when Dominic Moore converted a nice feed from Brian Boyle. With their season on the line, the Canadiens managed just 18 shots against the Rangers, including five in the third period. In 99 games this season, regular season plus playoffs, it was the fifth time that Montreal had been held to 18 or fewer shots on goal and their 36 shot attempts was easily their lowest of the postseason (previous low was 47) and came in lower than that only twice during the regular season. The Rangers dominated possession in the deciding game, with 58 shot attempts to the Canadiens 36. Subban was even in terms of 5-on-5 shot attempts (16 for, 16 against), which meant that the Habs were left with 27.3% of the 5-on-5 shot attempts (12 for, 32 against) when Subban was off the ice. There were many occasions throughout the series when the Rangers used their speed to take advantage of the Canadiens and that worked in Game Six too. LW Chris Kreider was on for 84.2% of the 5-on-5 shot attempts when he was on the ice, the best rate of the eight Rangers to come in with possession numbers higher than 70% for the game. At the low end for the Rangers in Game Six, LW Carl Hagelin was on for just 21.1% (four for, 15 against) of the 5-on-5 shot attempts. Getting the worst of the possession stats for Montreal was D Andrei Markov, on for 17.9% of the shot attempts (five for, 23 against). With Markov off the ice, the Canadiens were getting 47.9% of the even-strength attempts. Heading towards unrestricted free agency, will that be the last game Markov plays for the Canadiens? Hes slowing down, but played a career-high 25:14 per game this season, so hes an integral part of the Canadiens blueline. Game Six hero Rene Bourque didnt register a shot on goal, team captain Brian Gionta didnt manage a single attempted shot and LW Max Pacioretty, who had three shots on goal, was the only Habs forward with more than two. As much as it was a nice playoff run for the Canadiens, it ended in disappointment. (Coughlins Law: Everything ends badly, otherwise it wouldnt end.) Bourque was a postseason surprise, with a team-leading eight goals and led Montreal with six points in the series against the Rangers. C Lars Eller led Montreeal forwards with 13 points and D P. Sergei Nemchinov Rangers Jersey. K. Subban, despite two points in six games against the Rangers, led the Habs with 14 points in 17 games, but the last 10 games of the playoffs were hard on Thomas Vanek, Montreals big trade deadline acquisition, who had two goals and two assists in that span, registering a total of 13 shots on goal. For a player who averaged a career-high 3.18 shots on goal per game during the regular season, that decline suggested that Vanek could have been playing hurt. Its hard to fathom such a collapse without some underlying reason, but if it was merely just a run of poor play from Vanek, it came at a most inopportune time. Rookie G Dustin Tokarski was excellent for Montreal in Game Six, turning aside 31 of 32 shots by the Rangers, leaving him with a .916 save percentage for the series; a nice unexpected contribution for the Habs. Will it be enough to change their plans for next season? Carey Price and Peter Budaj are under contract, which doesnt leave room for Tokarski, so maybe hes looking at another year in the AHL. Tokarski does have an inexpensive one-way deal in 2015-2016. For the Rangers, G Henrik Lundqvist rebounded from getting pulled in Game Five and while he wasnt tested much during his 18-save shutout, he did have a spectacular save off a Vanek scoring chance when the game was still scoreless. Lundqvist has a .928 save percentage in the postseason, the best among goaltenders with at least six games played. The other assist on Moores series-winning goal went to Ryan McDonagh, yet another shot through the Habs heart, as their former prospect had a monster series, with 10 points in six games. He had three points in 14 games through the first two rounds and goes into the Final tied with Martin St. Louis and Derek Stepan for the Rangers playoff scoring lead. The popular notion is that the Rangers are going to be easy pickings for either Chicago or Los Angeles, whichever team claims the Western Conference, but the Rangers shouldnt be dismissed so easily. They finished the regular season sixth in Fenwick Close (53.6%) and have one of the games premier puck stoppers behind them. That alone should give them a chance and for a team that last won the Stanley Cup 20 years ago, thats a pretty exciting proposition. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys China Cheap Jerseys From China Cheap NFL Jerseys Authentic Wholesale Jerseys China Cheap NFL Jerseys China NFL Cheap Jerseys ' ' '