SAN JOSE, Calif. – The Sharks have had a habit in recent seasons of welcoming franchise icons back to SAP Center only to send them out of town with a loss.
It was a little different Tuesday night.
On the night they welcomed back Joe Thornton, the Sharks saw Frank Vatrano score both the game-tying third period and the overtime winner in a 3-2 Florida Panthers victory before an announced crowd of 12,276.
The Sharks received goals from Logan Couture and Nicolas Meloche and 31 saves from goalie James Reimer. Tomas Hertl assisted on both goals.
With the lights dimmed inside the arena before the game, a montage of Thornton and some of his greatest moments with the Sharks was shown on the video board: his 1,000th assist, his hat trick goal against Boston in 2019, his overtime, series-clinching goal vs. the Los Angeles Kings in 2011, the Sharks’ first Western Conference championship in 2016.
As the video ended, Thornton, under the spotlight, received another thunderous ovation as he smiled and waved to the crowd.
“It was great. I love the people of the Bay Area. It’s just nice to be back,” Thornton told ESPN at the first intermission. “We had such great nights here, such great battles. This fan base was unbelievable. We won some big games, we lost some big games, but this crowd was awesome throughout the whole thing.”
Thornton, third on the Sharks’ all-time list in games played (1,104) and second in points (1,055) over a 15-year Shark tenure from 2005 to 2020, said before the game that he didn’t know what to expect during the pregame ceremony.
“Just trying to get through the first couple of shifts and settle down, and then just play some hockey,” Thornton said, “but I’m sure it’ll be a little emotional to be back and that’s a good thing.”
The Sharks in October 2017 had a special pregame ceremony to honor Patrick Marleau, “Mr. Shark,” in his first game back in San Jose after he signed as a free agent with the Maple Leafs earlier that year. A similar ceremony was held for fellow franchise icon Joe Pavelski in January 2020 after he signed with the Dallas Stars in July 2019.
The Sharks, though, won both games, beating Marleau and the Leafs and Pavelski and the Stars by 3-2 and 2-1 scores, respectively.
Against the Panthers, the Sharks could have made things easier on themselves had they been a bit crisper with the man advantage. As it was, after Couture’s power-play goal at the 8:19 mark of the third period, the Sharks went 0-for-4 with the man advantage.
Reimer was making his first start since March 1 when he was forced to leave a game against the Vegas Golden Knights after one period with a lower-body injury. Reimer, who entered Tuesday with a 15-12-5 record and a .916 save percentage, missed four games, as Alex Stalock and Adin Hill each made one start and Zach Sawchenko had two in his absence.
Jonathan Huberdeau and Frank Vatrano both scored for the Panthers, with Huberdeau’s first-period goal coming shorthanded and Vatrano’s third-period goal tying the game 2-2.
Florida thought it had the go-ahead goal with 11:08 left in the third period as Mason Marchment, son of Sharks development coach Bryan Marchement and a former Jr. Sharks product, crashed the net and knocked a loose puck over the goal line.
The Sharks, though, challenged for goalie interference, and a review determined that Marchement illegally made contact with Reimer to cause the goal.
The Panthers kept pressing, though, and nearly tied it, hitting the post twice in the game’s final five minutes.
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