Matthew Tkachuk scored once in a three-point outing while Aaron Ekblad collected one goal and one assist in his return to the lineup to pace the visiting Florida Panthers to a 7-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Saturday.
A.J. Greer also notched one goal and one assist, while Nate Schmidt, Sam Bennett, Jesper Boqvist and Sam Reinhart added singles for Florida, which has won four of six games.
Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky made 21 saves.
Cody Ceci and Will Smith replied for the last-place Sharks, who are riding a six-game skid and have lost nine of 10. Starting goalie Alexandar Georgiev surrendered four goals on 15 shots before being pulled early in the second period. Yaroslav Askarov made 14 saves in relief.
San Jose has surrendered 34 goals in its six-game skid.
The Panthers erased a one-goal deficit thanks to six unanswered goals.
After Schmidt opened the scoring with a rocket of a shot from the point at the 5:47 mark, the Sharks staked a lead thanks to goals 32 seconds apart by Ceci and Smith.
Ceci put the hosts on the board with a deflection while parked at the front of the net at the 6:50 mark, and Smith made it a 2-1 game by pouncing on a loose puck for his eighth goal in his rookie season.
However, the Panthers took over soon after. Bennett tied the clash at 14:27 when he converted a second chance during a flurry of action. Ekblad, who missed seven games due to an upper-body injury, found the mark with a point shot at 17:08.
Greer’s goal at 3:01 of the second period, a breakaway tally, sent Georgiev to the bench in favor of Askarov, but the goalie change did little to slow the Panthers.
Tkachuk added a power-play goal at 5:35 with a nifty deflection to make it a 5-2 game, then Boqvist extended the edge by finishing a cross-crease feed from Anton Lundell at 13:07 of the period.
Reinhart’s rebound goal three minutes later capped a four-goal second period for the Panthers, and rounded out the scoring.
–Field Level Media
