SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Sam Reinhart and Eric Staal each scored a pair of goals and the Florida Panthers beat the San Jose Sharks 4-1 Thursday night for their season-high third straight win.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 32 saves in the win.
Alexander Bararanov scored for the Sharks. Kaapo Kahkonen made 34 saves in the loss.
Florida played minus captain Aleksander Barkov, who was out because of a hand injury. But Reinhart, who plays on the right side of the Panthers’ top line, helped make up for Barkov’s absence.
The Panthers tied it at 1 when Reinhart scored earlier in the second period on a wrist shot from the right circle.
In the final minute of the second, Eetu Luostarinen — who replaced Barkov as the first-line center — drove toward the net and stumbled to the ice as he released a pass to Reinhart in the slot.
Reinhart deflected the soft shot and put it between Kahkonen’s skates for the go-ahead goal with 40.2 seconds remaining.
Barabanov gave the Sharks — who were coming off an overtime win in Tampa Bay on Tuesday night and were going for a sweep in Florida — a 1-0 lead by jumping on a big rebound left on a shot from Erik Karlsson at 5:49of the first.
San Jose had a terrific chance to tie the score when Florida defenseman Aaron Ekblad got hit with a four-minute, double-minor for a high stick to the face of Timo Meier with 4:52remaining.
Kahkonen was pulled for the extra attacker with 2:15 remaining to give the Sharks a 6-on-4.
Only Luostarinen picked off a puck at center ice and fed Staal for the empty-net goal with 1:39 remaining.
Staal got his second empty-net goal just 24 seconds later.
NOTES: Barkov missed his 11th game of the season due to various injuries and illness. The Panthers expect him to return to the lineup on Saturday. … San Jose center Logan Couture briefly left in the second period after being run into the backboards by Florida defenseman Brandon Montour. Couture returned after missing about five minutes of game time. … Montour saw his 10-game scoring streak come to a close. He scored three goals with 10 points during his streak.
UP NEXT
Sharks: At Washington on Sunday afternoon.
Panthers: Hosts Colorado on Saturday night.
___
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Anyone can read Conversations, but to contribute, you should be a registered Torstar account holder. If you do not yet have a Torstar account, you can create one now (it is free)
For all the latest Sports News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
