SAN JOSE, Calif. – Whatever Erik Karlsson touches is turning to goals right now.
The San Jose Sharks just want Karlsson’s heroics to turn into a couple of more victories.
With the Sharks down by two to the Florida Panthers entering the third period, Karlsson led a dramatic comeback. He assisted on a Timo Meier power play goal, scored at even strength, and assisted on Matt Benning’s go-ahead goal with 8:12 left in regulation time.
But Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe scored with 1:22 left in regulation time to tie the game 3-3, and Sam Reinhart scored the only goal in the shootout as the Panthers handed the Sharks a 4-3 loss at SAP Center.
On the Sharks’ third goal, Karlsson was near the wall inside the Panthers when he passed it over to Benning, who took a few brief strides to his right before he flung a shot on net that beat Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.
Karlsson now has 12 points – seven goals and five assists – in the last four games as the Sharks fell to 1-2-2 on their six-game homestand that ends Saturday against the Anaheim Ducks.
Meier’s power-play goal came at the 1:04 mark of the third period, and Karlsson scored at the 6:34 mark.
With his goal, Karlsson became the second-ever Sharks defenseman to score in four consecutive games, after Brent Burns did it in 2016. With 10 goals on the year, Karlsson has matched his career high in his four-plus seasons with San Jose. Karlsson had 10 goals last season.
In the first period, Sharks winger Luke Kunin was given a match penalty and ejected after a high hit on Patric Hornqvist.
On the play, the puck had already slid into the Sharks’ zone when Kunin’s shoulder made contact with Hornqvist’s chin. Hornqvist made it to the Panthers’ bench but soon went to the team’s locker room at SAP Center after he was helped off the ice.
Hornqvist did not return to the ice for the rest of the first period and also missed the entire second period.
Kunin was initially assessed a five-minute major for the hit at the 9:14 mark of the first period. After a review by officials, Kunin was also given a match penalty.
Per NHL rules, any player given a match penalty is automatically suspended from further competition until the commissioner, Gary Bettman, has ruled on the issue.
The Panthers scored one goal with the man advantage, as Aleksander Barkov beat Sharks goalie James Reimer at the 13:43 mark of the first period for his second goal of the season. Reimer made five saves on the penalty kill and a staggering 18 saves in the period.
Coach David Quinn was eager to see how the Sharks responded to their 6-5 shootout loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday.
The Sharks played what was arguably their loosest period of the season when they allowed three goals on 17 shots. They needed a goal from Karlsson with 2:12 left in regulation time to help earn at least a point against a Ducks team that had gone 1-6-1 since their opening game of the season.
“I’m anxious to get going tonight because I feel confident that we’re gonna pick up where we were,” before Tuesday, Quinn said Thursday morning, “and not have the stretches that we had against Anaheim.”
The Sharks on Wednesday had an up-tempo half-hour practice which concluded with Quinn gathering everyone around him to remind them of the defensive mentality they needed to play with going forward.
It just so happened the Sharks were playing a Panthers team that had averaged 2.3 goals per game during 5-on-5 play, a number that ranked them in the NHL’s top 10 before Thursday’s game. The Sharks before Thursday were averaging about 1.6 goals per game at 5-on-5, one of the league’s lowest figures.
“Playing good defensively in this league is all about how hard you want to do it,” Sharks captain Logan Couture said. “Everyone at this level knows how to play defense. The question is how hard do you want to compete? If you play well defensively, it leads to offense.”
