Reinhart has scored in each of Florida's past five games

A flu bug going through the Florida Panthers dressing room would contribute to the team having to dig a bit deeper on Tuesday night in Sunrise.

The shorthanded Panthers got timely goals and a great game from their goaltender, defeating the San Jose Sharks 3-1 at Amerant Bank Arena.

Already missing two key defensemen and their second line center, Florida would also have to host the Sharks without their captain.

Sasha Barkov was not on the ice when the Panthers took pregame warmups, and soon after the team announced he would be out of the lineup due to an illness.

Fortunately for Barkov and the Panthers, his teammates were up to the challenge.

Florida outshot the Sharks 15-9 during the first period and outscored them 2-1 during the second period on goals by Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Reinhart.

Play evened out during the third period, and both teams were forced to come up with big penalty kills.

Anthony Stolarz played excellent for the Panthers in his Florida debut, holding the Sharks at bay until Kevin Stenlund could finish them off with an empty-net goal in the final seconds.

Here are some thoughts and observations from Tuesday night's game:

Reinhart looks very comfortable playing at this high of a level. He now has 7 goals and 9 points through Florida's first six games.

Despite not feeling particularly well, Matthew Tkachuk gutted it out Tuesday night, leading all players with seven shots on goal and logging a pair of assists. He also logged more ice time, 21:16, than any Panthers forward.

Filling in for Barkov on the top line, Anton Lundell performed quite admirably. He picked up an assist, his first point of the season, and won 67% of his faceoffs.

Overall, Florida struggled in the faceoff circle, losing 31 of the 50 draws against San Jose.

Samoskevich only received 8:16 of ice time, though he did flash a couple of times by using his speed.

You couldn't ask for much more from Stolarz in his first start. The only goal he gave up was one he never saw. It appears that Florida will once again have a very talented three-headed goaltending monster in Stolarz, Sergei Bobrovsky and Spencer Knight.

This is how the forward lines looked without Barkov:

Evan Rodrigues – Anton Lundell – Sam Reinhart

Carter Verhaeghe – Eetu Luostarinen – Matthew Tkachuk

Ryan Lomberg – Kevin Stenlund – Nick Cousins

William Lockwood – Steven Lorentz – Mackie Samoskevich

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