After heading into the All-Star break with a thrilling 4-3 overtime win over the Boston Bruins on Jan. 28, the Panthers returned with a 7-1 beatdown of the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday.
Matching a career-high, Matthew Tkachuk, fresh off winning MVP honors at the 2023 NHL All-Star Game, led the charge against the Lightning with five points (two goals three assists), while Carter Verhaeghe dished out two assists and scored two goals to up his team-high total to 28.
Sam Bennett, Eetu Luostarinen and Eric Staal also lit the lamp for the Panthers, while Sergei Bobrovsky turned aside 32 of 33 shots between the pipes to shut down Tampa Bay's offense.
"We know it's going to be a different game," Lundell said when asked about carrying that momentum into tonight's tilt. "Last game was a good game for the whole team. Now, it's a new game. We need to earn every chance and every goal. We have to be ready to play hard."
Needing one more win to become just the 25th goaltender in NHL history to win 350 games, Bobrovsky will return to the crease against the Sharks. Settling into a groove while earning the bulk of the work in net, Bobrovsky has gone 8-5-1 with a .916 save percentage in his last 15 appearances.
After suffering an injury while blocking a shot during the second period against the Lightning, captain Aleksander Barkov won't take the ice against San Jose. Needing another day to heal up, the All-Star is tied for second on the Panthers in scoring with 47 points (14 goals, 33 assists).
With a tough schedule ahead, the Panthers don't want to risk rushing their star back.
"He's getting better every day," Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said. "It was just kind of a decision where we've got to hold him for a night so that we have more confidence that we can get him in on the next and we don't have to worry about this for the next two or three weeks."
Filling in for Barkov, Eetu Luostarinen will center the top line.
"He's improved his game dramatically this year," Maurice said of Luostarinen, who's scored a career-high 11 goals this season. "We had Barkov and Lundell out of our lineup the last time we went out West. On that stretch, Luosty went in for wins for us in Vancouver and Seattle. We really liked our game, our team-game there. We have a lot of confidence in his ability to do that."
Despite occupying seventh place in the Pacific Division with a record of 16-25-11, the Sharks entered and exited the All-Star break with wins just like the Panthers. After securing a 6-4 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Jan. 28, they beat the Lightning 4-3 in overtime on Tuesday.
Trailing 3-1 after the first period, Timo Meier and Jonah Gadjovich scored for the Sharks to get the game to overtime. At 2:19 of the extra frame, Meier took a pass from Erik Karlsson, who lit the lamp in the first period, and buried his team-high 30th goal of the season to lock in the win.
"I thought we were really on our heels in the first," San Jose head coach David Quinn told reporters after the win. "They played last night. We got better as the game went on. The penalties really put us in a hole. [Kaapo Kahkonen] made the saves he needed to. Just really happy for him, because he's playing really well, and it's good to see us take advantage of it."
Starting each of the last two games, Kahkonen owns a 7-9-4 record with a .874 save percentage this season. Also seeing a lot of time in net for the Sharks, James Reimer, who suited up for the Panthers from 2016-17 to 2018-19, has posted a mark of 8-14-6 with a .895 save percentage.
In the running for the Norris Trophy, Karlsson, already a two-time winner of the award, leads the Sharks and ranks first among NHL defensemen in scoring with 69 points (17 goals, 52 assists).
Farther down the team's scoring leaderboard, Meier, who's scored seven goals in his last 10 games, sits in second with 51 points (30 goals, 21 assists), while Tomas Hertl is third with 45 points (14 goals, 31 assists). In fourth, Logan Couture has 43 points (19 goals, 24 assists).
Wrapping up their two-game season series, the Panthers came from behind to secure a 4-3 shootout win over the Sharks in their previous meeting at SAP Center back on Nov. 3. In the win, Tkachuk had three assists, Verhaeghe had a goal and an assist, and Lundell had two assists.
In the shootout, Sam Reinhart scored the game-winner.
"I think it's pretty cool to see a defenseman doing that well," Lundell said of Karlsson's big season. "Overall, we just need to know when he's on the ice and take his time and space away."
