In San Jose, the Florida Panthers’ Frank Vatrano hit for the final two goals of the game on Tuesday night.
His first tied the game, 2-2, with the Sharks early in the third period.
His second strike came in extra time and gave the Panthers a 3-2 win.
Joe Thornton returned to San Jose as a visitor for the first time.
“I can’t say enough about him,” the Sharks’ Brent Burns said. “I think he’s an incredible human. Obviously, an incredible hockey player, but I think it’s the off-ice stuff. He’s just special. I think he’s one of a kind. He’s an incredible, incredible guy. … The reception that he got and the video, it was great. You could ask Steven Spielberg to do a two-and-a-half-hour movie with him and nobody would get bored.”
Spencer Knight made 24 saves in the Panthers win.
“I think we kept our composure,” Florida coach Andrew Brunette said. “I really liked our game besides some of the things we were doing in the second period. We got a little carried away. We kept our emotions intact, and I thought we regrouped after two and had a great third period.”
Florida moved to 41-13-6.
Logan Couture and Nicolas Meloche were the Sharks strikers.
“We battled hard and played a pretty tight game for 40 minutes,” San Jose coach Bob Boughner said. “We did enough good things to get a point. Could have easily had two, but that’s one of the better teams in the league.”
San Jose dropped to 26-25-8.
Jonathan Huberdeau also scored in regulation for Florida. 
James Reimer made 31 saves in the Sharks loss.
“They can move and they can really zip the [puck],” Reimer said. “That’s a real solid team over there. I thought today we managed them in the zone pretty well and tried to keep [them] to the outside. They got going a bit, but I thought we handled them pretty well.”
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