SUNRISE, Fla. – An unusually poor second period proved to be too costly for the Florida Panthers, who lost 4-1 to the San Jose Sharks on Monday at Amerant Bank Arena.
The Sharks took control of the game, scoring three points in a span of 5 minutes and 22 seconds in the second.
“In the past we’ve been fortunate to come off the road and be very strong, but we’re not there yet,” head coach Paul Maurice said. “It was exactly the way we feared it would be.”
Matthew Tkachuk, making his season debut after offseason surgery for a torn adductor muscle and sports hernia, received a huge cheer from the crowd when he jumped over the boards and took to the ice for his much-anticipated first shift of the first period.
Returning to action quickly, the stubborn forward immediately showed his physicality.
“Personally, I was very relieved and happy to be in the game,” said Tkachuk, who had played since Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals in June. “I felt better as we went along. The first period was weird, I would say. It was a little weird. Nothing mimics the game. It was weird, but I felt a little better in the second period. I felt pretty much back to normal in the third period.”
There were no notable goals, and the first period ended with the Panthers leading in shots, 9-8.
Just 50 seconds into the second period, Will Smith snagged a rebound past Sergei Bobrovsky to give the Sharks the lead. Less than two minutes later, Vincent Descharnais doubled San Jose’s advantage to 2-0 with a goal at the 2:41 mark on another rebound opportunity.
At 6:12, Mario Ferraro grabbed a rebound to make it 3-0.
To keep the Panthers from falling further behind, Bobrovsky took what looked like a surefire goal from Tyler Toffoli late in the period.
Nico Mikkola, a key cog on the back end who entered his final shift with 4:21 left in the middle frame, was absent from Florida’s bench at the start of the third period and did not return to the game due to an undisclosed injury.
They’re already without Seth Jones and Dmitry Kulikov on the blue line, but they hope their big D-man is okay.
“We’ll understand better tomorrow,” Morris said of Mikkola’s situation.
Just 43 seconds into the third period, the Panthers fell behind when Etu Luostarinen beat Alex Nedeljovic with a shot from below the blue line to make it 3-1.
