Defenseman Aaron Ekblad had a goal and an assist in his return from an upper-body injury and the Florida Panthers routed the San Jose Sharks 7-2 on Saturday night.

The Panthers, who have won four of their last six, erased an early one-goal deficit with six unanswered goals to coast past the host San Jose Sharks.

Cody Ceci and Will Smith scored for the Sharks (14-32-6), who have lost six straight and nine of ten. Alexandar Georgiev allowed four goals on 15 shots before being pulled early in the second period for Yaroslav Askarov, who stopped 14 of 17 shots in relief.

The Florida Panthers sure bounced back from their blown lead in Los Angeles in a big way on Saturday. Skating against the struggling San Jose Sharks, Florida was dominant for much of the night, eventually earning an impressive 7-2 victory. It took less than six minutes for the Panthers to get the scoring started on Saturday against the Sharks.

This affiliate content is not influenced by our advertising relationships, but AP and Data Skrive might earn commissions from our partners’ links in this content.

This affiliate content is not influenced by our advertising relationships, but AP and Data Skrive might earn commissions from our partners’ links in this content.

San Jose Sharks ... has 14 goals and 29 assists for the Sharks. Macklin Celebrini has three goals and five assists over the past 10 games. Sam Reinhart has 28 goals and 24 assists for the Panthers.

The Cats have traveled north and will face the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center on Saturday night. It will be the second and final meeting between Florida and San Jose this season after the two battled down in Sunrise back in early December.

Closing out the scoring explosion in the second period, Sam Reinhart took a tap pass from Tkachuk, who went flying through the slot to make it happen, and fired a shot into the back of the cage to put the Panthers up 7-2 at 16:25. In the third period, the Panthers shut the door.

At the forefront of the Sharks’ rebuild is Macklin Celebrini, the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NHL Draft. The 18-year-old center is having a Calder Trophy-type season; he leads all rookies in goals (16) and is second in points (36) in 41 games. Celebrini missed 12 games because of a lower-body injury sustained in his debut on Oct. 10.

NHL: San Jose Sharks center Mikael Granlund was named an assistant captain for Finland’s 4 Nations Face-Off team

The United States, Canada, Finland and Sweden will play in the Feb. 12-20 4 Nations Face-Off. Here are the rosters and captains.