Photo credit: Robert Mayer- USA TODAY Sports

By Pearl Allison Lo

The Panthers flipped the story on their previous game with a 4-1 win, as Roberto Luongo almost shut out the San Jose Sharks Tuesday.

Florida lost 4-6 last game and gave up two two-goal leads, but never looked back in this one.

It was a tale of similar starts as San Jose went down 2-0 in the first  for the third time in their road trip, and lost by three goals and went down 3-0 in their second straight game.

From the boards after getting the puck back, the Panthers’ Jussi Jokinen passed it to Vincent Trocheck. Trocheck then saw Jimmy Hayes cross ice and Hayes got the puck to the net before defender Matt Nieto. At 10:56, it was Hayes’ third point in as many games and second straight goal.

Tomas Kopecky passed the puck to Scottie Upshall who was against the boards and working against Patrick Marleau. As both went behind the net, Upshall made a backwards pass to

Aleksander Barkov for the 2-0 score at12:18. It was Upshall’s fourth point and second assist in two games.

At 6:37 of the second, Aaron Ekblad fired from beyond the right circle and Derek MacKenzie put in the rebound for the 3-0 two-man play.

The Sharks hit the post twice during the period, including once with less than 7.5 seconds left.

Tomas Fleischmann scored his first goal of the season at 3:01 of the third, aided by Shawn Thornton and Ekblad to cap their scoring.

At 10:35, Luongo’s shutout, who has never shut out San Jose, was spoiled by no other than Joe Thornton, who has the best career record against Luongo. Tomas Hertl fished the puck from alongside the boards and passed it to Brent Burns. From the point, Burns’ puck hit Luongo, went over him and was knocked in by Thornton.

Game notes: Both teams had two power plays apiece but neither scored. Florida had 12 blocked shots to the Sharks’ five. San Jose’s John Scott returned for the first time since his suspension after Anaheim’s game, The Sharks continue their longest road trip of the season so far against the Tampa Bay Lightning Thursday at 4:30pm.