Florida Panthers center Sam Reinhart (13) is floored by his goal on San Jose Sharks goaltender MacKenzie Blackwood (29) at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise on Tue Oct 24, 2023 (AP News photo)
By Mary Walsh
The San Jose Sharks fell 3-1 to the Florida Panthers in Sunrise on Tuesday. Carter Verhaeghe, Sam Reinhart and Kevin Stenlund scored for Florida and Anthony Stolarz made 27 saves for the win. Fabian Zetterlund scored for San Jose and Mackenzie Blackwood made 32 saves in the loss.
After the game, Sharks forward William Eklund talked about his linemate, Tuesday’s lone goal-scorer, Fabian Zetterlund: “He’s always first in the corner, always first on the puck, always hitting guys, you know, creating chances for us, so I think he’s played really great today.”
Sharks Head Coach David Quinn talked about the good he saw in the Sharks’ game: “I thought our third period was our best period,.. I thought as the game went on we started finding our footing and did a better job on break outs and establishing some forecheck, just too little too late.” The bad, Quinn described as: “I just though we kept giving the puck away, I didn’t think we were committed in our battles, and against a team like that you’re gonna spend a lot of time in your end and give up chances and that’s kinda what happened. But as the game went on, that happened less and less.”
The first goal of the game came at 8:30 of the second period. Panthers defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson went to the penalty box for holding Tomas Hertl. With just five seconds left in the power play, Zetterlund scored with a wrist shot off a reverse pass from Eklund behind the net. Assists went to Eklund and Thomas Bordeleau.
The lead lasted less than two minutes, when Carter Verhaeghe scored a very similar goal, off a pass from below the goal line. The shot went into traffic, and may have gone off of a Sharks skate. Assists went to Matthew Tkatchuk and Eetu Loustarinen.
The Panthers scored again on a power play late in the period. It was a chaotic power play with a second penalty called in the first minute, delayed more than ten seconds. The teams played 5-on-3 for about four seconds before the Panthers were called for hooking. It was during the 4-on-3 that Sam Reinhart scored off a bouncing rebound. The assists went to Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Evan Rodrigues.
Though unable to score, the Sharks and their goalie delayed the Panthers’ third goal until the final seconds of the game, when Kevin Stenlund scored into and empty net to make it 3-1.
The Sharks were again out-shot, 35-28. Their face-off numbers were excellent, winning 62% of the draws. They killed three of four Florida power plays and scored on one of three power plays.
Veteran Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic was a scratch Tuesday, and defenseman Jan Rutta missed the second part of the first period with an undisclosed injury. Rutta returned for the second and third periods.
The Sharks next play on Thursday in Tampa at 4:00 PM PT against the Tampa Bay Lightning.





