Bobrovsky, power play lift Panthers past Sharks

Sergei Bobrovsky made 30 saves for the Florida Panthers in a 5-1 win against the San Jose Sharks at BB&T Center on Sunday.

Bobrovsky was starting for the second consecutive day after making 33 saves in a 4-1 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday.
"I felt great there," Bobrovsky said. "It was great to come back tonight and compete with my teammates. Physically, you feel a little bit fatigued there, but I thought we stood together at the right time. It's a huge two points for us."
WATCH: [All Sharks vs. Panthers Highlights]
Aleksander Barkov, Keith Yandle and Frank Vatrano each had a goal and an assist, and Jonathan Huberdeau had two assists for Florida (15-9-5), which went 2-for-4 on the power play and has won three of its past four games.
Kevin Labanc scored, and Martin Jones made 28 saves for San Jose (15-15-2), which is 0-3-1 in its past four games, including a 7-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.
"My disappointment tonight is a little like last night," Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. "I think they score on their first shot or their first couple shots. You're chasing the game right off the bat. It's tough on the road to do that. I thought we hung in there and kept fighting, but it wasn't enough."
Yandle put the Panthers ahead 1-0 on the power play at 4:31 of the first when he shot between the legs of Sharks forward Melker Karlsson from the left point.

Barkov made it 2-0 at 8:15, tapping in a cross-crease pass from Evgenii Dadonov near the left post at the end of a rush.
With the secondary assist on the play, Huberdeau passed Stephen Weiss for second in Panthers history with 395 points.
Labanc cut it to 2-1 at 10:13 when his snap shot from the top of the right circle beat Bobrovsky through a screen by Timo Meier on the power play. It was San Jose's first goal with the man-advantage since Nov. 16 (0-for-23 previous 10 games).

"Back-to-backs are hard, but that shouldn't be an excuse for us," Labanc said. "We really needed these points. ... I thought we were playing well in the second period. We were in their end for a solid 10 minutes. We just didn't get the bounces that we needed."
Mike Matheson extended the lead to 3-1 at 6:32 of the second period with a wrist shot that went five-hole from the point. It was his first goal since March 25 (29 games).
"I thought we played one of our most complete games of the season," Matheson said. "I think we're really starting to come together as a team. ... Early in the year, we were letting up four, five, six goals sometimes. It's pretty difficult if you're giving up that much."
Brett Connolly made it 4-1 with a power-play goal at 10:19 of the third period. He has four goals in his past six games and eight in his past 10.
Vatrano scored an empty-net goal to push the lead to 5-1 with 1:29 remaining.

They said it

"Their goalie was better, their special teams were better tonight than ours. That was probably the story. I thought 5-on-5 we probably carried a lot of the play." -- Sharks coach Peter DeBoer
"We did some good things there. I thought [Bobrovsky] was really good early. ... It looked like he's very settled into that position there. I thought his composure, he was square to the puck, awareness to the rebounds. He was in control all game long." -- Panthers coach Joel Quenneville

Need to know

Labanc's goal was his first in 10 games. ... Florida allowed a power-play goal for the first time since Nov. 21 (14-for-14 on penalty kill previous six games). ... Jones has allowed at least four goals in each of his past three starts, including being pulled twice. ... Sharks forward Joe Thornton was held without a point and hasn't scored a goal since March 18 (41 games). ... Barkov has seven points (three goals, four assists) on a five-game point streak. ... Yandle has one goal and seven assists in a five-game point streak.

What's next

Sharks:At the Nashville Predators on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; FS-TN, NBCSCA, NHL.TV)
Panthers: Host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; SNE, SNO, SNP, FS-F, SUN, NHL.TV)