Panthers keep San Jose winless through 6 games, rally to top Sharks 3-1
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Sam Reinhart extended his goal streak to five games, helping the Florida Panthers to a 3-1 win over the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night.
Reinhart, Carter Verhaeghe and Kevin Stenlund each scored for the Panthers (3-3-0), who were without captain Aleksander Barkov because of an illness. Anthony Stolarz made 27 saves in his Florida debut, almost flawless in his first chance as Sergei Bobrovsky's backup.
“He has earned that because he worked really hard and he did that straight through camp,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said of Stolarz. “He knows the job so he knows those practices have to be his games and he prepared himself very well. He is a big man, but efficient. Not a lot of scramble in his game. It was really good.”
Fabian Zetterlund scored for the Sharks. Mackenzie Blackwood made 32 saves.
At 0-5-1, San Jose has matched the worst six-game start in franchise history. The Sharks also went 0-5-1 for one point through six games in 1993-94 — part of what became an 0-8-1 start. San Jose turned things around that season, getting to the second round of the playoffs.
“I just thought we kept giving the puck away,” Sharks coach David Quinn said. “I didn’t think we were committed in our battles and against a team like that you are going to spend a lot of time in your end and give up chances. That is kind of what happened, but as the game went on that happened less and less.”
Zetterlund gave San Jose the lead 8:30 into the second period, scoring a power-play goal off of a pass from William Eklund.
That was it for the Sharks' offense. The rest was all Florida.
Verhaeghe tied the game 1:18 after Zetterlund's goal, scoring off a one-timer set up by Matthew Tkachuk — the first of his two assists in the game. Reinhart's goal came at 15:23 of the second, a power-play score for his seventh goal of the season.
Reinhart's goal streak is the longest of his career; he'd had a four-game goal streak on four other occasions before this run.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had (a hot streak) at the start of the year,” Reinhart said. “When it doesn’t go at the start of the year, it’s a lot worse than when it’s in the middle of the year because you have nothing to fall back on. It just adds to that pressure, so to be able to start like this is nice.”
Stenlund added an empty-netter with 1.5 seconds left.
NOTES: Barkov was replaced by rookie forward Mackie Samoskevich, who has called up from AHL Charlotte on Tuesday afternoon. … Veteran defenseman Marc-Eduoard Vlasic was a healthy scratch for the Sharks for a second-straight game. … San Jose forward Anthony Duclair and Florida forward Steven Lorentz played against their former teams for the first time since getting traded for each other on July 1. … Stolarz and forward William Lockwood made their Panthers debut after signing with the team as free agents in the offseason.
UP NEXT
Sharks: Visit Tampa Bay on Thursday.
Panthers: Host Seattle on Saturday.
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