In Sunrise, Mason Marchment and Jonathan Huberdeau scored in the third period to rally the Florida Panthers back from a two-goal deficit on Saturday and force extra time with the San Jose Sharks.
Sam Bennett completed the rally with a goal in the extra session and 5-4 win for the Panthers.
“We have belief in ourselves,” Huberdeau said. “We know we can do it. Obviously you don’t want to fall behind. We knew we’re going to score some goals. That’s just our belief in the locker room.”
Sergei Bobrovsky made 30 saves for the Florida win.
The Panthers moved to 31-9-5/
Jonathan Dahlen hit for a pair of goals for the Sharks.
“Great screens there,” Dahlen said of his goals. “We had a good breakout and got in the zone quick, and got them through. It was nice.”
San Jose fell to 22-19-3.
“This team has lost three games in this building all year,” the Sharks’ Logan Couture said. “The [defensemen] worked their [butts] off. Guys have come in from the AHL and helped the team immensely. We battled and it was nice to get a point.”
Aleksander Barkov also scored for Florida.
“We’re a much deeper team when they’re on different lines,” Florida coach Andrew Brunette said. “I was just looking for a spark. We were close but we were kind of far away at the same time. They made some huge plays in the third period. They’re going to create all the time when they’re together.”
Tomas Hertl and Matt Nieto scored single markers for the Sharks.
James Reimer made 44 saves in the Sharks loss.
“That’s a great hockey team and [Reimer] played a great game,” Dahlen said. “This was the fastest game I’ve seen in my career.”
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