The Florida Panthers peppered Yaroslav Askarov with 39 shots, but they only managed to find the back of the net once in a tough 3-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center.
After carrying the play for most of the first period, the Sharks opened the scoring when Aaron Ekblad couldn’t come up with Vincent Desharnais long clear down the ice and Will Smith took possession and centered to Macklin Celebrini, who one-timed the pass past Daniil Tarasov at 17:25.
San Jose doubled the lead 3:06 into the second following an offensive zone faceoff. Adam Gaudette won the draw and got the goal, going to the net to tip in Dmitry Orlov’s rising shot after the Sharks worked the puck from right to left. Timothy Liljegren collected the second assist on the play.
The Panthers struck back 28 seconds later to halve the deficit. After Anton Lundell kept the puck pinned against the boards behind the net, Eetu Luostarinen slid a short pass to Brad Marchand. Marchand came out of the corner and fired off a shot on that hit Askarov up high and then bounced off Lundell back into the slot to Marchand, who deposited it into the yawning net on the backhand.
Florida would dominate the rest of the way (outshooting the Sharks 30-7), but the game’s final goal would come off the stick of former Panther Alex Wennberg, who found the empty net from Collin Graf and Smith with 51 ticks left on the clock.
Prior to the ENG, Askarov made a big save on Evan Rodrigues from in-close midway through the third and then denied a Sam Reinhart one-timer with 7:15 remaining and Celebrini off for holding.
A slow start and Ekblad’s gaffe put the Panthers in a hole they couldn’t quite dig out of it. Once Marchand scored the Cats took over the tilt, but they couldn’t find a way to get another puck past Askarov and dropped back to NHL .500 at 7-7-1. Going 0-for-5 on the power play certainly didn’t help matters. Got to feel for Tarasov, who is still seeking his first win of the season. Florida will finish the four-game road trip Monday night in Las Vegas.
The Five Hole
- The negative decision ended the Panthers 12-game winning streak against San Jose. The last time the Cats lost to the Sharks prior to this was on December 1, 2017.
- Brad Marchand has scored in four-straight games and he became the first Panther to hit ten goals this season. Marchand has produced at least a point in his last seven outings.
- Sam Reinhart registered a game-high seven shots on goal, but couldn’t come up with his eighth of the season on a night when the Panthers really needed it.
- While Daniil Tarasov fell to 0-3-1, he did lower his GAA to 2.50 and bump up his save percentage to .891. The wins will come for Tarasov. He just needs some goal support.
- In addition to his assist, Eetu Luostarinen matched Ty Dellandrea with a game-high four hits. Luostarinen was also credited with three shots and two blocks.