The Sharks played well and were neck-and-neck with the Florida Panthers in this specific matchup, but the wheels fell off in the final ten minutes as the Panthers would win 5-3.
The Panthers opened the scoring late in the first period via Ryan Lomberg, while the Sharks responded with Mike Hoffman’s first goal as a Shark. Jan Rutta recorded his first point as a Shark with an assist on the equalizer, and Ryan Carpenter collected the other assist on this goal. Florida regained the lead more than halfway into the second period via Sam Reinhart on a power play.
Early in the third period, Team Teal would score the next two goals via Tomas Hertl and Luke Kunin. The first of these two was on a man advantage, Mikael Granlund assisted on both of these goals, Fabian Zetterlund assisted on the first of these two by Hertl, and Danil Gushchin assisted on the second of these two by Kunin after recently getting called up from the Barracuda. The Sharks would run out of gas a few minutes after taking a 3-2 lead, as Carter Verhaeghe and Kevin Stenlund would score the next two goals to retake the lead for the Panthers once more. Sam Bennett would then score to extend the Panthers’ lead to two, only for that goal to be challenged and overturned for offsides. Florida would get its two-goal lead back, however, after Aleksander Barkov scored on the empty net with just over two minutes remaining.
Mackenzie Blackwood had a solid performance in net against the Panthers, recording a total of 27 saves on 31 shots, including a brilliant highlight-reel stop on Evan Rodrigues in the first ten seconds of the game. In addition, in a corresponding move to Gushchin being called up from the Cuda, Oskar Lindblom was placed on the IR with a lower-body injury.
Another major positive in the Sharks’ performance at home against the Panthers is that they weren’t significantly outshot by their opponents, unlike practically every other game they’ve played this season. Team Teal has improved in other areas of their game in this one, but they still need to play a full 60 minutes and step it up further in order to win. The Sharks conclude their brief homestand on Thursday against the St. Louis Blues at 7:30 pm PT.
Sources: Sharks Audio Network, NHL App, Curtis Pashelka via X
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