"We played a strong, simple game," Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad said. "We played with puck possession. We weren't scared to make plays. All that factors in. I think we did a great job of really just keeping our composure all night… We can bring that confidence to every game."
The Panthers and Sharks traded goals in the first period. After Evgenii Dadonov followed-up his own shot with a gritty rebound goal on Aaron Dell to put Florida up 1-0 at 4:52, Dylan Gambrell went on to beat Sergei Bobrovsky with a shot from the slot at 11:30 to get the game knotted 1-1.
In the second period, Mike Hoffman intercepted a pass in the defensive zone before slipping the puck through Dell's pads on a breakaway to put the Panthers ahead 2-1 at the 11-minute mark. Then, at 10:04 of the third period, Colton Sceviour lit the lamp to increase the advantage to 3-1.
After going almost 14 minutes without registering a shot to start the third period, the Sharks cut their deficit down to 3-2 with 5:26 left in regulation when a shot from Kevin Labanc took a lucky bounce on the power play. But, just 2:32 later, Anton Stralman put Florida back up 4-2 at 17:06.
Bobrovsky finished with 29 saves on 32 shots, while Dell turned aside 23 of 27.
"It was a big game for us," Bobrovsky said. "I thought guys did a whole consistent 60-minute effort. In the third, they didn't give [the Sharks] much, other than two goals. But I think it's more unlucky plays. Overall, I think we controlled the puck well. We protected the puck well and we advanced the puck. We advanced the puck defensively. I thought the guys did a great job."
Not going down without a fight, Timo Meier got San Jose right back within striking distance once again with a goal at 18:20 before Vincent Trocheck finally iced the game away with a very timely empty-net goal that locked in the 5-3 victory for the Panthers with five seconds left on the clock.