The Florida Panthers opened its three-game California road trip on the good foot, posting a 5-3 victory over the San Jose Sharks that extended its winning streak to five games.
Ryan Lomberg bagged the first goal 12:34 into the action by beating Mackenzie Blackwood unassisted from the right circle after picking up a turnover high in the offensive zone.
A pair of former Panthers helped San Jose equalize 3:24 later when Mike Hoffman fired in a loose puck from a sharp angle after Jan Rutta’s slapper from the right point hit Givani Smith’s skate in front.
A roughing call on Smith helped the Cats retake the lead 12:09 into the second. Oliver Ekman-Larsson settled Matthew Tkachuk’s saucer pass before putting a shot on Blackwood that produced a juicy rebound for Sam Reinhart to chip home for his 12th goal.
The bottom-dwelling Sharks would forge ahead in the third with two goals in a 1:10 span.
With Steven Lorentz off for hooking, Tomas Hertl tied the score at 6:11 by redirecting in Fabian Zetterlund’s centering feed. The secondary assist went to Mikael Granlund.
Granlund would collect another helper when his shot was tipped wide by Danil Gushchin and bounced back out in front to Luke Kunin, who swept a backhand through the five-hole of Anthony Stolarz on a delayed penalty.
After Evan Rodrigues drew a tripping call on Marc-Edouard Vlasic, the Panthers power play clicked again to even it up.
Carter Verhaeghe took a pass from Reinhart and his blistering shot was denied by Blackwood. The rebound came back into the slot and Aleksander Barkov forced Kunin in handing it back to Verhaeghe He quickly crossed to Tkachuk, who fed back to Verhaeghe, who buried a one-timer at the 10:06 mark for his 100th career goal. I thought Reinhart should’ve got the secondary assist on this one as Barkov didn’t appear to touch the puck. Whatever… tie game!
Kevin “Tommy” Stenlund would deflect Uvis Balinskis shot from long range past Blackwood 63 seconds later to put the Panthers ahead for good. The hard-working Lorentz got a point against his former team by sending the puck back to Balinskis after Lomberg pried it free in the right corner.
It looked like Florida had tacked on another, but Sam Bennett awesome steal and deadly wrister from the top of the right circle was deleted for offsides, costing him his first of the season.
While Reinhart may not have gotten the secondary assist on Verhaeghe’s marker, he did get it on Barkov’s clinching empty-netter with 2:13 left on the clock. Reinhart rapped the puck up the right boards to Verhaeghe and his backhand pass sent the captain away for the easy goal.
Up a goal and in control, the Panthers wobbled and fell behind in the early stages of the third, but did a good job to quickly right the ship, regain the lead, and put the Sharks away to sweep the season series. The power play produced two goals for the second straight game, which was good to see, and Stolarz was solid enough to help his club win with Sergei Bobrovksy on the bench resting. Florida will get a day off before playing what will likely be the toughest tilt of the trek west Thursday versus the Los Angeles Kings.
Teeth & Tails
- The Panthers big guns continue to pile up points. Multipoint games were had by Sam Reinhart (1G/1A), Carter Verhaeghe (1G/1A), Aleksander Barkov (1G/1A) and Matthew Tkachuk (2A).
- Tkachuk extended his point streak to seven games (2G/8A) while Reinhart extended his to five games (4G/8A).
- Reinhart’s 12 goals have him tied with Brock Boeser for third in the NHL behind Auston Matthews and Kyle Connor, who have 13. He is tied for fourth in the league in scoring with 23 points, just two behind leader Elias Pettersson.
- Both of Anthony Stolarz’ wins have come against San Jose. Stolarz made 19 saves while his counterpart Mackenzie Blackwood finished with 27 stops.
- Uvis Balinskis’ assist on Kevin Stenlund’s game-winner was his first in the NHL. Balinskis also had a hit and finished +1 in 11:47 TOI.
- Tomas Hertl’s third period goal was his 206th in the NHL, tying him with Owen Nolan for fifth in Sharks history.
- For the saltier side of the sweep, swim over to Fear The Fin.