The Florida Panthers had a huge comeback win on Saturday night, defeating the San Jose Sharks 5-4 in overtime.
Jonathan Huberdeau had a goal and two assists, and Gustav Forsling added a goal and an assist for Florida. Aleksander Barkov and Mason Marchment also scored, and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 30 shots for the Panthers.
For the Sharks, Jonathan Dahlen had two power-play goals, and Tomas Hertl and Matt Nieto also scored for the Sharks. James Reimer, the former Panther, made 45 saves.
First Period:
The Sharks drew first blood when Tomas Hertl got inside the crease and shoved the puck between Bobrovsky’s pads at 6:10. At 15:52 in the period, Anthony Duclair would receive a penalty for goaltender interference on ex-Panther goaltender James Reimer. The Sharks would extend the lead to 2-0 on the power play when Jonathan Dahlen ripped a shot from the high slot through the back of the net at 17:17. The Panthers would cut the lead back in half at 2-1 with 54 seconds remaining in the period; Gustav Forsling shot a one-timer past Reimer.
Second Period:
It would take a minute and 31 seconds from the break for San Jose to stretch their lead to 3-1 when Nieto’s shot from the slot beat Bobrovsky. However, that was the only action in the second frame.
Third Period:
The Cardiac Cats would wake up in the third period. The Captain, Aleksander Barkov, would cut the lead to 3-2 just a minute and 26 seconds in when he would fire one from the slot past Reimer. The Sharks, however, would get the lead back to two goals when Jonathan Dahlen scored his second of the night, scoring off a wrister from the side circle.
However, this is when the Panthers woke up. The Panthers would score two goals in 2:08 to tie the game at four. Mason Marchment would cut it to 4-3 when he found a loose puck in the crease and stuffed it into the net at 7:30 for his third goal in three games. Florida pulled even on Huberdeau’s nifty cross crease feed goal two minutes and eight seconds later.
Overtime:
Sam Bennett won it for the Cats when he took a fake Michigan pass from Huberdeau from behind the net and pushed in the puck from in front, past Reimer.
Takeaways:
- The Panthers (31-9-5), who lead the NHL with 67 points, have won three in a row and eight of 10. They improved to 23-3-0 at home.
- The Panthers had a season-high crowd of 18,152.
- The Panthers are off to their best 45-game start in franchise history. They had 61 points at this stage in the 1995-96 and 2020-21 seasons.
- It was Bob Boughner’s first time coaching at the Panthers’ arena since his two-year stint as Florida’s head coach. Before Saturday, the Sharks last visited Florida on Dec. 8, 2019, three days before Boughner was hired by San Jose to replace the fired Peter DeBoer — another former Panthers coach.
Next Up:
The Panthers will travel on a back-to-back to Columbus and Manhattan to play the Blue Jackets and Rangers.
(Featured image by Eliot J. Schechter/NHLI via Getty Images)