"I like that it was a bit of a creative play," Panthers coach Paul Maurice said of the pretty passing sequence. "Put it into the slot, but give it back to him. There's a lot of guys that have worked really hard here and haven't had a lot go for them at all, and a bunch of them had big nights."
With Reimer making save after save to try and limit the damage for the Sharks, the Panthers finally broke through again in the second period when Radko Gudas took a pass from Matthew Tkachuk and wired home a long one-timer from just below the blue line to make it 2-0 at 15:50.
The 15th Panther to score this season, the goal was Gudas' first of 2022-23.
Starting the third period on the power play, the Sharks quickly gained a 5-on-3 advantage for 1:24 after a delay of game penalty on the Panthers. Capitalizing, Timo Meier blasted a rocket of a one-timer from the right circle past Bobrovsky to suddenly cut San Jose's deficit to 2-1 at 1:04.
Leading all NHL defensemen in goals (10) and points (18), Erik Karlsson, who entered tonight's matchup with nine points (six goals, three assists) over his previous three games, tied the game for the Sharks when he threaded a shot through traffic off a faceoff win to make it 2-2 at 6:34.
Continuing to fill the slot full of bodies, the Sharks took the lead not long after Karlsson's game-tying tally when Matt Benning beat Bobrovsky with a shot through traffic to make it 3-2 at 11:48.
Making sure the Panthers would get at least a point, Carter Verhaeghe took a pass from Tkachuk and somehow managed to thread the needle through the smallest of holes between Reimer's shoulder and the crossbar to make it 3-3 with just 1:22 left in regulation.
In the extra frame, Bobrovsky made perhaps his biggest save of the night when he robbed Nico Sturm on a 2-on-1 break to silence the home crowd and keep the score deadlocked at 3-3.
"The biggest impact was Sergei Bobrovsky," Maurice said. "That was the difference of our overtime."
Staying hot in the skills competition, Bobrovsky went a perfect 4-for-4 against the Sharks in the shootout, while Reinhart netted the only goal the Panthers would need when he backhanded a shot over Reimer's glove to lock in the 4-3 win in Round 4.
With the win, Florida improved to 6-4-1.
"Swaggy (Verhaeghe) with an unbelievable shot to get us the point, and then Bob and Reino there to secure us the second one," said Tkachuk, who tallied three assists against the Sharks to increase his team-leading point total to 16 on five goals and 11 assists. "Not how we drew it up, but they're not in our division so I guess we can give them a point."
