RECAP: Panthers 5, Sharks 3

SAN JOSE – The Florida Panthers scored three goals in the third period to kick off their three-game road trip in California with a 5-3 win over the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center on Tuesday.

Improving to 10-4-1, the Panthers pushed their winning streak to five games.

“We stuck with it,” forward Carter Verhaeghe said. “A bit of a low-energy game. It’s tough traveling to the West Coast with the time change and everything. No bad wins in the NHL.”

After a few high-danger stops from Mackenize Blackwood kept the Panthers off the board early, Ryan Lomberg finally broke through when he snapped a wicked shot into the far side of the cage from just inside the top of the right circle to break the ice and make it 1-0 at 12:34 of the first period.

Tying it up for the Sharks, former Panther Mike Hoffman, who suited up in Sunrise from 2018-2020, lifted a rebound over Anthony Stolarz glove from a sharp angle to make it 1-1 at 15:58.

Earning a power play in the second period, the Panthers regained the lead when Sam Reinhart, the NHL’s reigning First Star of the Week, pounced on a rebound after a point shot from Oliver Ekman-Larsson and fired the rubber right past Blackwood to make it 2-1 at 12:09.

With an assist on the goal, Matthew Tkachuk extended his point streak to seven games.

Taking advantage of some penalty trouble for the Panthers in the third period, the Sharks managed to even the score when Tomas Hertl re-directed a centering feed from Fabian Zetterlund into the top of the cage from the slot on the power play to make it 2-2 at 6:11.

“I wasn’t down on the way we played at all,” head coach Paul Maurice said. “I thought San Jose played a good game. You’re not going to get an easy game out of any team in the NHL when you play as hard as they did. We got a couple bad breaks, but we didn’t change our game.”

Playing with a 6-on-5 advantage due to a delayed penalty, the Sharks briefly went ahead when Luke Kunin scored from the top of the crease to make it 3-2 at 7:21. But less than three minutes later, Verhaeghe quickly answered with a power-play goal for the Panthers to make it 3-3.

The goal was his 100^th in the NHL.

“It feels good,” said Verhaeghe, who’s sitting on seven goals this season. “One hundred goals in the NHL is an accomplishment. As a kid, you always believe in yourself, but it’s a slim chance of even making it to the NHL. I’m just lucky to be playing hockey and to score goals in the NHL.”

With the pendulum swinging back in their favor, the Panthers broke the tie just 1:03 later when Kevin Stenlund, who has quite the reach at 6-foot-5, stuck out his stick in the slot and caught a piece of a shot from Uvis Balinskis, tipping the puck past Blackwood to make it 4-3 at 11:09.

Moments later, Sam Bennett appeared to increase Florida’s newfound lead to 5-3, but his goal was unfortunately called back after the Sharks successfully challenged for offside.

Making it 5-3 a second time, the Panthers locked in the win when Aleksander Barkov took a nice dish from Verhaeghe and deposited to the puck into the empty net with 2:13 left on the clock.

After Kunin’s go-ahead goal, Florida surrendered just two shots on goal.

Stolarz finished with 19 saves, while Blackwood made 27.

“The first period was even,” Maurice said. “We had some chances. A bit sluggish, maybe for both teams. The second period, I thought we were actually pretty good. We got 15 shots blocked in the second. You get some of those through, you’re going to get some more action on ‘em. I think we were on the right end of the ice. In the third, we started to get the puck through to the net.”

The Panthers have won 10 straight games against the Sharks.

THEY SAID IT

“It was important. They’ve been good for us all year and done really important things. Their last game they didn’t love, so important for them to come out and be difference-makers tonight. They also need to do that for themselves. They work hard, they battle.” – Paul Maurice on Ryan Lomberg and Kevin Stenlund lighting the lamp

“We’re just trying to play our game every night, every shift, every minute. It bounces our way now. We’ve just got to keep it going.” – Kevin Stenlund on Florida’s winning streak

“We got some energy. We had a couple breakdowns they scored on. It shows the resilience of our group. We came back and had a couple big power play goals. It was nice.” – Carter Verhaeghe on the Panthers pushing back in the third period

CATS STATS

- Florida’s five-game winning streak is tied for the longest active streak in the NHL.

- Evan Rodrigues skated in his 400^th NHL game.

- Anthony Stolarz improved to 10-1-0 in his career against the Sharks.

- Sam Reinhart recorded his 10^th multi-point game of the season.

- The Panthers have won their last seven games at SAP Center.

- Florida led 16-6 in shots on goal in the third period.

- Sam Bennett posted a team-high 73.08 CF% at 5-on-5.

- Niko Mikkola saw a team-leading 24:36 of ice time.

WHAT’S NEXT?

We’ve still got a couple late nights ahead of us.

With one game down and two more to go on their annual road trip through the Golden State, the Panthers will kick off their first back-to-back of the season when they face the Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com Arena on Thursday at 10:30 p.m.