The Sharks’ 4-1 win over the Florida Panthers on Monday at Amerant Bank Arena was one to remember for many reasons, but the epic fight between goalies Alex Nedeljkovic and Sergei Bobrovsky is the moment that will be talked about for some time.
The two netminders came to blows in the third period when Nedeljkovic rushed to the defense of San Jose teammate Vincent Desharnais, who was playing in his first game back from injury. As Nedeljkovic got into it with Panthers forward Evan Rodrigues, Bobrovsky came plowing down the ice from the rink’s opposite end to throw down with the Sharks goalie.
Nedeljkovic told NBC Sports California’s Randy Hahn and Drew Remenda after the game that he would do it all over again, no matter who he was standing up for — though he was surprised to see Bobrovsky rush 200 feet to involve himself in the fray.
“Somebody started yelling [to warn me], I don’t know who it was … I don’t know why I felt the need to turn around, but it was a little bit of like an, ‘Oh crap,’ moment,” Nedeljkovic recalled on “Sharks Postgame Live.”
“Fight or flight kind of kicked in, you know. I tried to watch [Ryan Reaves] as best I could. I hope I made him a little bit proud out there.”
It was the first career fight for Bobrovsky, but Nedeljkovic said he had been in one before during his Detroit Red Wings tenure. The Sharks goalie is just the second in San Jose history to be assessed a fighting major; Steve Shields was the first on Oct. 4, 1999, against the Chicago Blackhawks.
“I was just doing my best not to get punched,” Nedeljkovic told Hahn and Remenda. “[Bobrovsky] came out swinging, so I was just trying not to lose any teeth, or it might have straightened my nose out a little bit more for me, but, I don’t want to do it that way.”
Bobrovsky told reporters he believed Nedeljkovic went “over the line” in his scuffle with Rodrigues, and the Panthers goalie felt compelled to let him know.
“I felt just like I’d made a decision and I went straight into it,” Bobrovsky said. “It’s exciting, you know, but it’s obviously not the thing I’m doing for a living. It is what it is, so we had a good fight. And unfortunately we didn’t have two points, and that’s the most important.”
The Sharks left the ice with those two points after the win, which secured San Jose a season sweep over the defending Stanley Cup champions. The win put the Sharks at 53 points on the 2025-26 NHL season, which is one more than they accrued all of last season.
Behind second-period goals from Desharnais, Will Smith and Mario Ferraro, plus a late empty-netter by Barclay Goodrow, Nedeljkovic’s goaltending gloves kept pace with his boxing gloves with 35 saves to help San Jose grab its fifth win in seven games and 25th of the season.
“They’re all special,” Nedeljkovic said after the win. “They’re all lots of fun. This one had a little bit more extra stuff going on, I think, than the other 24, but you know what, we’ll take it.
“Two points is two points.”
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