Jason Garrison and Chris Higgins scored in the third period, and the Florida Panthers snapped a five-game home losing streak with a 3-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Sunday.
Joe Pavelski and Kent Huskins scored for the Sharks, who have lost two in a row after going 9-0-1 in their previous 10 games. Pavelski assisted on Huskins’ goal, while Torrey Mitchell had two assists.
Mike Santorelli also scored and Marty Reasoner had two assists for the Panthers, who won for only the third time in their last 12 games (3-4-5). Higgins added an assist and Tomas Vokoun stopped 28 shots to improve to 10-0-1 in his last 11 starts against San Jose.
Antti Niemi, who had given up four goals in his previous four starts, made 19 saves for San Jose, which outshot Florida 30-22.
Garrison gave the Panthers the lead for good at 17:59 in the third. His slap shot from the point beat Niemi on the stick side after Florida had the puck in the San Jose zone for about a minute.
Higgins’ goal at 10:36 tied it at 2 after Pavelski put San Jose in front early in the period. Higgins grabbed a loose puck near the boards, skated toward the net and slipped a backhand past Niemi.
Pavelski backhanded a rebound from a sharp angle two minutes into the third to make it 2-1 Sharks. Vokoun had stopped Mitchell’s one-timer off a feed from Dany Heatley from behind the net.
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Huskins opened the scoring 17:57 into the opening period with his second goal of the season, both coming in his last three games. He took a feed from Pavelski from behind the net and beat Vokoun with a slap shot through traffic from the top of the faceoff circle.
Santorelli tied it with 29 seconds left in the second period. After Niemi stopped his wrist shot, Santorelli got the rebound and passed from behind the goal line, and it went in off Niemi’s right skate.
