Wingels rallies Sharks past Panthers
SUNRISE, Fla. -- Tommy Wingels scored the game-winning goal at 8:53 of the third period to cap a comeback as the San Jose Sharks beat the Florida Panthers 4-2 at BB&T Center on Thursday.
Chris Tierney won a faceoff in the offensive zone to give the Sharks possession as San Jose battled back after a 2-0 deficit.
Wingels then gathered the puck, forced his way through the crease and slid a backhander past Florida goaltender James Reimer for the deciding goal.
Brent Burns, Joe Pavelski and Logan Couture also scored for the Sharks (8-6-0).
Joel Ward, Patrick Marleau, Tierney and Justin Braun recorded assists for San Jose.
Jason Demers scored twice for Florida (6-7-1).
Jared McCann, Aleksander Barkov and Jaromir Jagr had assists.
Martin Jones posted 22 saves for San Jose.
Reimer had 25 saves for the Panthers.
Florida opened the scoring at 5:09 in a fiery first period when Jared McCann sent a puck diagonally cross-ice from the corner to Demers, whose blast from above the right circle deflected in off Sharks' right winger Tommy Wingels' stick.
Demers, who was drafted by San Jose in 2008 and played five-plus seasons with the Sharks, made it 2-0 at 7:26 when he chipped in a loose puck near the crease after Jagr?s shot from the right circle bounced off Barkov.
San Jose erased the two-goal deficit in a second period that became testy after Burns clipped Florida defenseman Keith Yandle and sent him to the ice behind a rush.
Burns cut into the lead when he flipped the puck past Reimer for his sixth goal, an unassisted one, at 16:18 after blocking a shot by Yandle.
Pavelski tied it 2-2 at 1:53 after stealing a puck from Alex Petrovic and beating Reimer high over his left shoulder for his fifth goal.
NOTES: The Sharks scratched C Micheal Haley, LW Matt Nieto and D Dylan DeMelo. ... San Jose was playing the second of a six-game road trip. The Sharks swept a six-game road trip a year ago on the way to going 9-4-0 in November. ... RW Kevin Labanc played in his second NHL game after recording 13:23 of ice-time for the Sharks in his debut Tuesday in Washington. ... Florida scratched C Kyle Rau, LW Shawn Thornton and D Dylan McIlrath, who the club acquired from the New York Rangers on Tuesday. ... C Nick Bjugstad, who broke his hand in a preseason game in Dallas, has been skating on his own and could make his season debut within the next two weeks. ... LW Jussi Jokinen returned to Florida's lineup and played on the second line after missing nine games with a knee injury. ... Florida was celebrating Military Appreciation Night and took warm-ups wearing camouflage jerseys.