An utterly shite start to the second period cost the Florida Panthers dearly in a 4-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks at Amerant Bank Arena.
The Panthers gave up three goals, all on rebounds, in a 5:22 span to spoil the long-awaited return of Matthew Tkachuk to lineup.
After the goaltenders ruled the first period, Will Smith opened the scoring fifty seconds into the middle frame. Smith, who was left unmarked in the slot, was able to the collect the rebound of Timothy Liljegren’s shot from the right point and slickly deposit it in the back of net after Sergei Bobrovsky’s initial skate save. Former Panther Alex Wennberg got the second assist for his low-to-high pass to Liljegren.
Vincent Desharnais would score his first goal of the season, and second of his NHL career, 1:51 later to put the Sharks up by pair. After taking an entry pass from Michael Misa on a 2-on-2 rush, rookie Igor Chernyshov cut across the zone and put a shot on Bobrovsky that he couldn’t locate after stopping and Desharnais beat Uvis Balinskis and Sandis Vilmanis to the puck to pound it home.
Chernyshov and Misa would get the assists on Mario Ferraro’s marker at 8:41 that really put the Cats under water. Chernyshov opened up on the left side to receive a pass from Misa and put a hard wrister off Bobrovsky left pad. The rebound made a beeline for Ferraro’s blade and he easily potted it with a desperate Mackie Samsokevich a stride or two behind.
The Panthers turned it on in third, testing Alex Nedeljkovic 19 times, and we got a rare goalie fight as Bobrovsky skated down the ice to drop the gloves with the San Jose keeper with 14-minutes left on the clock, but it was all for naught.
Eetu Luostarinen pulled the Panthers back within two when he took a backhand pass from Aaron Ekblad at the right point and sent a shot through traffic that eluded Nedeljkovic 43 seconds in to break the goose egg.
Unfortunately, that would be the all the Cats could muster, as Nedeljkovic stood tall the rest of the way and Barclay Goodrow clinched it with an unassisted empty-netter at 17:21, giving the Sharks the season-series sweep and their first win in Sunrise since December 1, 2017.
A disappointing result for the Panthers, who came into the game winners of three of their last four. Florida wasted a prime opportunity to gain ground on Buffalo for the second wild card and will go back out on the road for games in Winnipeg, Minnesota and Chicago this week.
The Five Hole
- Matthew Tkachuk logged 20:58 of ice time and was credited with three shots, a hit and a block in first appearance of the season. Tkachuk took a big hit from Desharnais late in the first period and was no worse for wear. A good sign.
- Third Star Eetu Luostarinen’s goal was his fifth of the season and first since December 27. Luostarinen finished the game with three shots, two hits and a block.
- Aaron Ekblad’s helper on Luostarinen’s marker was the 400th point of his NHL career. Ekblad was one of three Cats to finish with a plus-one rating.
- Anton Lundell registered a game-high six shots on goal and won a team-high 12 faceoffs.
- Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 24 of 27 shots and was tagged with his 14th loss of the season.
Stat Card
