SAN JOSE \u2013 The Florida Panthers showed their resilience while picking up an important early-season point in a 4-3 overtime loss to the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Already playing without top-pair defenseman Gustav Forsling, who is listed as day to day, the Panthers lost their superstar captain, Aleksander Barkov, to an injury in the second period.<\/p>\n
Still, they clawed back from a 3-0 deficit to earn a point.<\/p>\n
“We could have gone one or two ways and felt bad for ourselves and mailed it in, but I thought we played really well, especially in the third,\u201d said forward Matthew Tkachuk, who scored the late equalizer. \u201cThat’s a gritty point that we got. It was a pretty gritty game. A lot of stuff going on that normally you don’t see, especially when we play each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Opening the scoring for the Sharks, Mason Marchment, who joined San Jose on a five-year deal during the offseason, buried a long shot through some heavy traffic to make it 1-0 at 14:20.<\/p>\n
Tested early and often in the opening 20 minutes, Akira Schmid, making his first start of 2026-27, made 10 saves in the period.<\/p>\n
\u201cHuge saves,\u201d forward Eetu Luostarinen said. \u201cGreat goalie tandem again this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the second period, the Panthers were put into a prime position to even the score when a high-stick cut Barkov and left him bloodied, which gave way to \u00a0a four-minute power play.<\/p>\n
But after being unable to convert for the majority of the extended man advantage, the Panthers saw their deficit double to 2-0 when Will Smith scored shorthanded at 5:52.<\/p>\n
Then, the Panthers suffered their biggest blow of the game.<\/p>\n
In a battle along the boards, Barkov, who missed all last season with a right knee injury, went down and had his left leg bend awkwardly. Getting up right away, he immediately headed down the tunnel, throwing his gloves in frustration along the way.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s not related to his injury last year at all,\u201d head coach Paul Maurice said of the unfortunate sequence of events. \u201cHe’ll get looked at. We’ll have a good idea by tomorrow afternoon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Touching twine a second time, Smith extended San Jose\u2019s lead to 3-0 at 10:37.<\/p>\n
Getting the Panthers on the board and planting the seeds of their late comeback late in the second period, Luostarinen beat Yaroslav Askarov on a rebound to make it 3-1 at 17:10.<\/p>\n
From then on, momentum swung heavily in Florida\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n
“You never want to see your teammate go down, especially your captain,\u201d Luostarinen said. Hopefully he’s fine, nothing major. Yeah, obviously, we need guys to step up for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carrying their newfound juice into the third period, the Panthers pulled within a goal when Luostarinen tipped in a shot from Dmitry Kulikov to make it 3-2 at 5:01. Just 17 seconds after that, Tkachuk beat Askarov with a wrist shot from the slot to make it 3-3.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought our game really got more direct,\u201d Tkachuk said of the late-game surge. \u201cWe had more pucks and more guys to the net. That\u2019s how you’ve got to score in the NHL.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not long after officials opted not to make a call after Carter Verhaeghe had his stick slashed out of his hands in wide-open ice, the Sharks found themselves on their own man advantage late in regulation when\u00a0Kiefer Sherwood drew a roughing call.<\/p>\n
But even with 1:43 of that power play carrying over into the extra frame, the Panthers managed to hold their ground on the penalty kill and survive to get the action back to 3-on-3.<\/p>\n
At 3:14 of overtime, Luca Cagnoni scored to secure the 4-3 win for the Sharks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a real good push there and a real good push at the start of the third,\u201d Maurice said. \u201cI think we felt we could come back and win it. We\u2019d rather lose it almost the way we did than lose it on that kill [in overtime]. We got a great kill out of it, but couldn’t close it.\u201d<\/p>\n
THEY SAID IT<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we pushed harder in the third. We got some results. We were on the puck, and we had a lot of chances.\u201d \u2013 Eetu Luostarinen on Florida\u2019s late push<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought Luosty had a really good training camp, too. He had a whole heck of a lot of chances in Carolina. You just want him to get one to feel good, so he should feel good tonight. I thought did a real nice job getting to the net.\u201d \u2013 Paul Maurice on Eetu Luostarinen\u2019s two-goal performance<\/p>\n
It’s a long year. You gotta grind out points. We would’ve liked to get the extra one in overtime, especially after that kill, which was awesome, but, you know, all in all, we’re down 3-1 going into the third, you’ll take that point and run.” \u2013 Matthew Tkachuk on clawing back to earn a point in San Jose<\/p>\n
CATS STATS<\/p>\n
Radko Gudas recorded three blocked shots and four hits.
\nSeth Jones skated a team-high 27:43.
\nBrady Tkachuk and Boko Imama each had five hits.
\nAnton Lundell wont 68.8% of his faceoffs.
\nThe Panthers led 41-24 in hits.<\/p>\n
WHAT\u2019S NEXT?<\/p>\n
The trek through California continues.<\/p>\n
After getting an extra day off to rest and recharge, the Panthers will return to the ice to battle the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center on Sunday at 8 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n