Alex Nedeljkovic, surging Sharks fight past Panthers

Alex Nedeljkovic made 36 saves and had his second career fight in a 4-1 win for the San Jose Sharks against the Florida Panthers on Monday in Sunrise, Fla.

Will Smith, Vincent Desharnais, Mario Ferraro and Barclay Goodrow scored for the Sharks, who are 8-3-0 in their past 11 games. Igor Chernyshov and Michael Misa each had two assists.

Eetu Luostarinen scored and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 24 shots for the Panthers, who had won three of four.

Smith opened the scoring 50 seconds into the second period. Bobrovsky made a pad save on Timothy Liljegren's point shot, but Smith was in front to collect the rebound and slide it by the goalie.

Desharnais made it 2-0 at 2:41 of the second. Bobrovsky stopped Chernyshov's shot from the top of the left circle but again left a rebound in front, and a pinching Desharnais quickly beat him on the glove side.

Ferraro pushed the margin to 3-0 less than four minutes later. Chernyshov held the puck at the bottom of the left circle, pulling Bobrovsky to the near side before taking a shot that was saved, but the rebound went straight into the slot and Ferraro put it into the open net.

Luostarinen pulled Florida within 3-1 in the opening minute of the third period. With Sam Reinhart and Anton Lundell in front, Luostarinen fired a wrist shot from the point that beat Nedeljkovic over his right shoulder.

The game took a feisty turn six minutes into the final frame. Evan Rodrigues laid a hit on Desharnais in the corner in the San Jose zone and Sam Dickinson cross-checked him in retaliation. That resulted in a melee, with Nedeljkovic getting in on the action and leading to Bobrovsky racing all the way down the ice to go after Nedeljkovic, and the two netminders dropped the gloves.

It was Bobrovsky's first career fight. Nedeljkovic's first bout was in the ECHL on April 22, 2017, per hockeyfights.com.

Goodrow scored an empty-net goal at 17:20 for the 4-1 final.

Florida winger Matthew Tkachuk played 20:58 in his season debut after recovering from offseason surgery to repair a torn adductor muscle and sports hernia.

--Field Level Media