In San Jose, the Sharks continued to have trouble as they lost to the Florida Panthers and Sergei Bobrovsky, who made 29 saves in a 5-3 decision over the Sharks.
“It’s huge. Big goals, big moments,” Aaron Ekblad said. “We’ve talked about this for a while now and we really needed this win. We’re going to really try and work to string some [wins] together here.”
Aaron Ekblad had two assists for the Panthers – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Five different Panthers scored in the win.
“It was a big game for us,” Bobrovsky said. “The guys had a consistent 60-minute effort.”
Evgenii Dadonov staked the Panthers to an early 1-0 lead before Dylan Gambrell tied the game at 1-1.
Mike Hoffman, Colton Sceviour and Anton Stralman scored for the Panthers to help build a 4-3 lead in the third period for Florida.
“I thought we had a real good, strong third period there, and then it got a little more exciting than we hoped for at the very end,” Panthers coach Joel Quenneville said. “But it was a big two points for us. I thought [Bobrovsky] was excellent for us tonight; several key stops, they had some traffic and some all-alone looks there, and I thought he put us in a good spot where we always had the lead.”
Kevin Labanc and Timo Meir also scored for San Jose.
“We had the momentum and we gave them that one bad chance on the breakaway,” Sharks head coach Bob Boughner said. “It turned the game in a way.”
Vincent Trochek potted a goal in the empty net late to seal the win for the Panthers, who avoided a three-game skid with the win.
Florida outscored the Sharks, 3-2m in the third period as San Jose attempted to rally.
“Huge effort,” Ekblad said. “Obviously, they got a lucky bounce there on the [power play] and then they scored late too, but [Stralman] came in and fired it top corner, post and in or bar down, whatever it was. It really gave us that extra push we needed to get through.”
[WATCH: All Panthers vs. Sharks highlights]
Aaron Dell made 23 saves in the loss.
“We just made a couple real costly mistakes that ended up in the back of our net. They’re a pretty opportunistic team that has some skill,” Boughner said.
You must be logged in to post a comment.