Photo credit: Alan Diaz AP Photo

~ By Pearl Allison Lo

~ Both San Jose and the Florida Panthers were resilient, but goalie Martin Jones made the saves down the stretch to keep his team in the game for a 2-1 win.

The game was tight, as evidenced by the decreasing shots in goal as the game wore on, especially starting in the second. However, the pressure remained intense.

It was the Sharks’ second straight comeback win away from home, as the road warriors played to the shootout a week after their last one. It was Florida’s second shootout in a row.

San Jose moved to 3-2 in the shootout, while overcoming the Panthers’ dominance there, now 6-2. Florida were without their top two in the shootout.

The Sharks’ Tommy Wingels left early in the first, as he hit the boards after a check gone wrong. Wingels, who never returned to the game, played just 1:54.

San Jose had three power plays in the second, but the way the first two went, it looked like it was the Panthers’ power play..

Despite that, Florida only had two shots on goal.

The Panthers’ Jaromir Jagr, the newly turned 44 year old, broke the deadlock 2:23 into the third period. Reilly Smith, from the opposite end faceoff circle, passed it to Vincent Trocheck at the blue line, who used good movement to get to the faceoff circle in the Sharks’ end. Tomas Hertl then blocked Trocheck’s puck with his stick and the rebound went to Jagr, who put the puck in five hole.

At 8:56, a new line change paid dividends. The Sharks’ Joe Pavelski got the puck to Joe Thornton behind the net, who went around and passed the puck up front to Logan Couture, who hit top shelf. Thornton now has a seven game point streak, as Couture got his third goal in six games. That was San Jose’s only shot on goal in the period.

Jones made a face-to-face stop against Trochek and also stopped him in overtime.

The Sharks’ Marc-Edouard Vlasic had a shot that went off the goalpost in overtime.

Hertl got the puck off a turnover and may have scored, if not for a slashing call that perhaps could have gone either way. San Jose got the 4-on-3 power play at 3:32, but could not break through.

With both goalies having clean shootout records at 2-0, one had to give.

The Sharks were a perfect 2 for 2. Both Joonas Donskoi and Pavelski went for different approaches, Donskoi with speed and Pavelski with more of a wait and see, against goalie Al Montoya. It was Pavelski’s second goal in as many games and his second game winner in less than a month.

Game notes: San Jose has now scored at least two goals in 18 straight games. They were outhit 31-18, Florida’s Dmitri Kulikov with six, and out-blocked 16-8. The Sharks had less giveaways, 8-20. San Jose will have to endure more resilience with the second of back-to-back games, if Wingels is absent. That game starts at 4pm on Friday.