By Ivan Makarov

One thing that’s been odd and puzzling about San Jose Sharks season thus far is how poorly they have played against Eastern Conference outsiders, especially at home. With the losses to Buffalo Sabres and New York Islanders, it came as no surprise when another Eastern bottom dweller gave Sharks a hard time, this time the team being Florida Panthers.

With only 25 wins in 68 games before the match up at SAP Center (compared to Sharks’ 45 wins on the season), Florida walked away with a 3-2 victory on Tuesday night in front of the sellout crowd. Scoring three goals in the second period, that’s all they needed to stop the six game winning streak by the Sharks.

Scottie Upshall, Quinton Howden and Brandon Pirri scored for the visiting team while Marty Havlat and Brent Burns scored for the Sharks.

On top of that, it was a stellar night in goal for Sharks’ familiar foe Roberto Luongo who was a frequent visitor to San Jose when he was playing with Vancouver Canucks before being traded to Florida only two weeks ago in the trade deadline transaction. Luongo made 52 saves (28 of them in the third period alone!) to preserve the victory.

How do Sharks explain the losses to some of these weaker teams?

“It’s tough to explain,” said Logan Couture after the game. “We knew going in that they were going to come out and they were going to work. I think we have more talent in this room than they have in theirs. But in the first two periods they outworked us.”

Coach Todd McLellan agreed.

“I was really disappointed, and I’m sure [the players] would tell you they are too. We started average and didn’t get better and then fell asleep. There wasn’t a lot of emotion in the game and drive from our behalf. We fell asleep and then tried to get desperate in the end. It doesn’t matter what league you’re in, you can’t win like that. We’ve talked about this a lot of times already, with teams who may be not in the playoffs, and we keep shooting ourselves in the foot. Until we fix that, we’re probably going to end up with the same results.”

The game itself was indeed the tale of the two different performances like the two of them described – the lackadaisical first two periods, and the desperate game in the third period.

After uneventful first period, San Jose were the first team with the the lead in the game after Marty Havlat opened the score with his eighth goal of the season which he scored on the power play at the start of the second period, as he fired the puck on a slap shot above the face-off circle. But it was the second half of that period that decided the game when Florida scored three goals in a row.

The first two goals came within 17 seconds of each other, which had to be frustrating for the Sharks. The third goal came with only 15 seconds remaining in the period. Sharks were outshot in that period and did not look like the team that have won 10 out of the last 12 games.

“In the first two [periods] we were cheating ourselves,” said Couture. “We were trying to look for offensive chances, leaving the zone. Too many mistakes.”

After some adjustments in the second intermission the Sharks looked like they got their legs back, and they began playing faster hockey, putting more shots on goal and breaking through Florida’s stingy defense. They outshot them 29-2 in that period, and had four power play chances, including a 51-second long 5-on-3 advantage. But when even when presented with good scoring chances, Sharks did not capitalize on them, as Luongo was sharp and focused in goal.

Sharks did score one goal with three minutes remaining in the game, but the big scramble afterward did not lead to any more goals.

If there was one positive on Tuesday night for the Sharks it was that their main divisional opponent this season Anaheim Ducks also lost playing at home against Washington Capitals, failing to advance on the Sharks in the standings. The two teams will now face each other on Thursday back at the SAP Center.