The San Jose Sharks had a golden opportunity to get some traction in the race for the Pacific Division’s top spot but ran into a road block Thursday night in a 4-2 loss to the Florida Panthers.
The loss dropped the Sharks to 43-20-8 and ended a six-game win streak.
Frank Vatrano had a goal in Florida win in San Jose – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
“Sure, every time you lose a game it’s opportunity lost, but you’re not going to win every game the rest of the way,” San Jose head coach Peter DeBoer said. “Two weeks ago, we were seven points back. I think we’re in a pretty good spot, and we worked awful hard to get there.”
Jamie McGinn, Dryden Hunt, Mike Hoffman and Frank Vatrano scored for the Panthers.
The Panthers needed the win more than the Sharks; they trail the second wild spot by seven points.
“We’re not out of it yet,” Florida coach Bob Boughner said. “We know it’s a long way to get there, but we’re concentrating on winning every game. That’s the goal. … We’re not giving up till the end. We’re going to fight.”
Florida improved to 31-27-12 with the win.
Sam Montembeault made 26 saves for his third straight win in the Florida nets.
Melker Karlsson and Kevin Labanc scored for San Jose.
“We didn’t look good,” Logan Couture said. “We didn’t look fast. We looked slow. Turning pucks over. Penalties. I’m sure the energy level looked like it was low, but we got to find a way to play better than that.”
[WATCH: All Panthers vs. Sharks highlights]
Martin Jones made 23 saves in the loss.
“We didn’t help ourselves,” DeBoer said. “We took too many penalties, but that’s usually the result of reaching because your legs aren’t moving enough. Just one of those nights. We found a way a lot of times this year to win these games when our energy was down, but tonight wasn’t one of those nights. You have to give them credit too. They played hard.”
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