Takeaways as Florida Panthers rally in third period to beat San Jose Sharks
Carter Verhaeghe scored his 100th goal of his career to start the Florida Panthers’ third-period comeback bid in a 5-3 win over the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday at SAP Center.
The Panthers improve to 10-4-1 on the season and have won five consecutive games. The Sharks fall to 2-13-1.
Kevin Stenlund scored the go-ahead goal with 8:51 left in regulation, a little more than a minute after Verhaeghe tied the game with his power-play goal, and Aleksander Barkov added an empty-net goal to cap Florida’s three-goal period to seal the win.
Ryan Lomberg and Sam Reinhart also scored for Florida, with Lomberg opening scoring 12:34 into the first period with a wrist shot from the right circle and Reinhart giving the Panthers a 2-1 lead 12:09 into the second with a tip-in on the power play.
The Sharks scored a pair of goals early in the third — Tomas Hertl on the power play 6:11 into the final period and Luke Kunin at 7:21 with the Sharks having a 6-on-5 advantage following a delayed penalty against the Panthers — to take a brief 3-2 lead before Florida mounted its comeback.
Here are three takeaways from the game.
Sam Reinhart’s heater continues
With his second-period power-play goal, Reinhart is now up to 12 goals and 22 points — both the most by a Panthers player through the first 15 games of a season. Reinhart is on a five-game point streak and has scored five of Florida’s eight power-play goals.
Reinhart was the NHL’s first start of the week after logging 10 points over the Panthers’ four games last week — wins over the Columbus Blue Jackets, Washington Capitals, Carolina Hurricanes and Chicago Blackhawks.
Anthony Stolarz with another win vs the Sharks
If there is one team Panthers goaltender Anthony Stolarz has consistently been dominant against in his career, it’s the Sharks.
So it was no wonder that he was in net for Florida on Tuesday against San Jose.
And while it wasn’t the prettiest outing, Stolarz once again came out on top against the Sharks.
Stolarz stopped 19 of 22 shots that came his way in the win.
In 12 career games against San Jose entering Tuesday, Stolarz had a 9-1-0 record, .931 save percentage and 2.42 goals against average. That includes his 27-save effort on Oct. 24 in a 3-1 win over the Sharks in Sunrise.
Next up: A back-to-back
The Panthers close out this three-game California trip with their first back-to-back of the season.
It starts on Thursday with a 10:30 p.m. puck drop against the Los Angeles Kings. The Panthers will then turn around on Friday to face the Anaheim Ducks before heading back to Sunrise for a week at home.
This story was originally published November 15, 2023 at 1:15 AM.
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