Rebound goals and a goalie brawl ignite the ice, but the Panthers' home struggles continue against the Sharks' relentless attack.
The Florida Panthers played their first home game in weeks on Monday night but ultimately couldn’t come up with a win.
Florida started out strong, but the game quickly got away from them as the San Jose Sharks skated to a 4-1 win at Amerant Bank Arena.
Both teams skated to a scoreless first period, one that saw Florida lead 10-8 in shots but get clobbered 22-13 in attempts.
San Jose ride that momentum into an early goal in the second period.
After some early extended zone time, Sharks defenseman Timothy Liljegren fired a long shot on net that was stopped by Sergei Bobrovsky, but super sophomore Will Smith was right there to gobble up the rebound and deposit it behind Bob just 50 seconds into the middle frame.
They weren’t done there.
Another rebound goal, this one off the stick of Vincent Desharnais, quickly made it a 2-0 game at the 2:41 mark.
Less than four minutes after that, another rush play and another rebound ended up in the back of Florida’s net, this one scored by another Sharks defenseman, Mario Ferraro.
It took until the opening minute of the third period before the Panthers could finally get one on the board.
Florida cycled the puck through the offensive zone, eventually leading to Eetu Luostarinen taking a long shot from just inside the blue line that beat Alex Nedeljkovic on the blocker side just 42 seconds into the final frame.
A crazy sequence occurred a few mintues later.
It started with Vincent Desharnais tripping Mackie Samoskevich and Evan Rodrigues cross checking Desharnais in the corner to the right of Nedeljkovic.
A scuffle ensued and for whatever reason, Nedeljkovic jumped out of his net and joined the fray, throwing punches at Panthers players involved in the scrum.
Bobrovsky saw that and made a beeline 200 feet down the ice for Nedeljkovic, not hesitating to toss off his gloves and start throwing punches at the Sharks netminder.
Thanks to the original trip by Desharnais, Florida ended up with a power play out of all that, and the fans went crazy for Bobrovsky.
That would end up being the high point of the night.
A Sharks empty-net goal by Barclay Goodrow ended Florida’s comeback attempt with 2:40 to go.
On to Winnipeg.
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Photo caption: Dec 7, 2024; Sunrise, Florida, USA; San Jose Sharks center Macklin Celebrini (71) moves the puck against Florida Panthers defenseman Gustav Forsling (42) during the third period at Amerant Bank Arena. (Sam Navarro-Imagn Images)