Sharks rally past Panthers

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Tommy Wingels got the game-winner and the San Jose Sharks scored four unanswered goals in a 4-2 win against the Florida Panthers at BB&T Center on Thursday.
The Sharks (8-6-0) won their second consecutive game after losing three straight.
"It's good," Wingels said of getting wins in the first two games of a six-game road trip. "Long road trip here. You want to pile as many wins as you can in a row. Certainly it's a good start for us. This League's all about getting streaks, winning three, four, five in a row, and not going on losing streaks of that capacity. Good start for us, hopefully we can build a couple more on it."

WATCH: All Sharks vs. Panthers highlights
After the first period, it didn't look like the Sharks would be in position to win. They had gone down 2-0 in the first period after defenseman Jason Demers scored twice before rallying, starting with a goal by Brent Burns.
"Once we got one - big effort by [Burns] there - I thought we gained some confidence in there," Sharks forward Joel Ward said. "Just started to roll from there."
Burns made it 2-1 at 16:18 of the first period with an unassisted goal that he created by stepping in front of a shot on the other end of the ice. That turned the game around, stopping the momentum of the Panthers and cutting their lead in half.
Martin Jones made 22 saves for San Jose. James Reimer, who finished last season with the Sharks, had 25 saves for the Panthers (6-7-1).

Demers scored twice against his former team, with the first goal at 5:09 of the first period, and the second at 7:26, after Jones allowed a rebound to the left side of the crease off a shot by Jaromir Jagr that bounced off Aleksander Barkov.
"It's fun, but you want to win first," Demers said. "I don't care if I get four goals. If we don't win, it doesn't mean anything. It's a tough one to swallow."
Because the Panthers couldn't hold onto the lead.
The Sharks tied it 2-2 at 1:53 of the second on a goal from Joe Pavelski. Wingels gave San Jose a 3-2 lead at 8:53 on a backhand shot after a faceoff win by Chris Tierney.
Logan Couture scored an empty-net goal with 57 seconds remaining.

Goal of the game

Burns started the play in the Sharks defensive zone by getting in the way of a shot by Panthers forward Jussi Jokinen. He jumped on the puck, which had been deflected back through the neutral zone, and corralled it just outside the offensive blue line. He finished by scoring a goal against Reimer as he plowed into the goaltender at 16:18 of the first period.

Save of the game

With 2:16 remaining in the game and the Sharks up 3-2, it looked like Colton Sceviour had a chance for the game-tying goal. But Jones went down to the ice and forced Sceviour into a weak miss by the side of the net, keeping the Sharks in the lead.

Highlight of the game

Demers sent a shot from the right faceoff circle that bounced up and off Wingels, beating Jones at 5:09 of the first period. It was his first goal since he signed a five-year contract with the Panthers on July 2, and it came against his former team. Demers had played for the Sharks the past six seasons and was originally drafted by San Jose in the seventh round of the 2008 NHL Draft.

Unsung moment of the game

Ward did some good work along the wall early in the second period, taking possession of a puck that Alexander Petrovic had tried to chip from inside the defensive zone. Ward fed the puck to Pavelski for the goal that tied the game.

They said it

"[Burns is] a game-changing type player. That's what he does. We needed that at that point, from somebody." -- Sharks coach Peter DeBoer on Brent Burns' goal
"It's a trend that's been going on since the start of the year. We've got to fix it soon because it's embarrassing to keep getting games like this and playing hard and then just mental errors and mental mistakes by all of us. We let off the gas, we let teams back in the games. It's been happening all year. I think we've outplayed 95 percent of the games we've played, the teams. It's between the ears right now." -- Florida Panthers defenseman Jason Demers

"We've got to play better. We made mistakes when we shouldn't make mistakes. We forced plays. We gave them the goals. They didn't deserve the goals. We gave them their three goals." -- Panthers coach Gerard Gallant

Need to know

The empty-net goal for Couture was his first goal in 11 games and third of the season. … Jokinen returned for the Panthers after missing nine games with a lower-body injury. … Burns had two shots on goal and leads the League with 73.

What's next

Sharks: At the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday (4 p.m. ET; SUN, CSN-CA, NHL.TV)
Panthers: Home against the New York Islanders on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; FS-F, MSG+ 2, NHL.TV)