The four-goal first period between the teams was followed by a scoreless second. Scott Wedgewood stopped the nine shots he saw and helped the Coyotes kill off two minor penalties.
"They're a tough team to play against, they've got a lot of skill," said Schmaltz. "They move the puck so quick it's hard to get pressure on their defense. They just kind of have that three high in the neutral zone and they create a lot of odd man rushes. So, they're a really good team and we almost got a little something going there late in the third there. But I don't think we generated enough from the start to about ten minutes left in the third."
Arizona held Florida to just four shots in the third period but could not solve Sergei Bobrovsky in the final 20 minutes as the Panthers held on to claim the 3-1 win.
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The Game:
First Period (FLA 3, ARI 1): Patric Hornqvist (4), assisted by Ryan Lomberg (4) and Eetu Luostarinen (2) at 9:05. /// Sam Bennett (9), assisted by Sam Reinhart (12) and Aaron Ekblad (16) at 9:15. /// Phil Kessel (4), assisted by Travis Boyd (4) and Barrett Hayton (2) at 16:53. /// Sam Reinhart (8), assisted by Patric Hornqvist (9) and Jonathan Huberdeau (22) at 19:35.
Second Period (FLA 3, ARI 1):No scoring.
Third Period (FLA 3, ARI 1): No scoring.
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Statistics:
SOG:ARI - 23, FLA - 23
PP:ARI - 1/5, FLA - 1/4
Hits:ARI - 28, FLA - 17
Blocks:ARI - 7, FLA - 12
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Tourigny's Take: ""If you look at the result no, but if you look after the first period we had ten scoring chances against seven. I thought we were pretty good after one, but to your point the urgency defensively was not what we wanted in the first period. You play against one of the highest scoring teams in the NHL, the team who generates the most chances off the rush in the NHL - and we had a lack of urgency in those situations. It's not because we didn't play a good game, we played a good period, but that lack of urgency cost us and at the end of the day made the difference in the game."
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Dysin Mayo said: "Our power play, obviously, has been struggling. But to get that goal early on and get us back into the game, that was huge. And even the rest of the power plays we had where we didn't capitalize on them, but just the emphasis of shooting the puck more, you could see that we were getting more chances out of it. So it was good to see."
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Notable:
• Phil Kessel's first period goal extended his point streak to four games, tying his season-high and marking the third time a Coyote has gone four consecutive games with at least a point (others: Kessel, Nov. 13-20; Keller, Nov. 18-24.)
• Kessel is now five goals shy of reaching 400 for his career.
• Travis Boyd reached 10 points in his 19th game of 2021-22. It took him 36 games last season to crack double-digits.
• Boyd's helper was his first power-play point of the season and his first since Feb. 20, 2021 as a Toronto Maple Leaf.
• Barrett Hayton's assist was his first career power-play helper.
• Forwards Nick Schmaltz and Jay Beagle played in their first games after being activated off Injured Reserve. Schmaltz played 15:32 - 1:53 of which came on the power play - and recorded two shots while Beagle accumulated 12:39 and was 14-for-17 in the faceoff dot (82%).
• Beagle's 82% is the highest by a Coyote this season (min. 10 total face-offs) and the highest by an Arizona individual since Christian Dvorak on March 12, 2021 (85%).
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Coyotes Lineup:
Forwards
Keller - Boyd - Kessel
Crouse - Hayton - Schmaltz
Roussel - Beagle - Eriksson
Ladd - Dzingel - Fischer
Defensemen
Gostisbehere - Mayo
Chychrun - Lyubushkin
Capobianco - Strålman
Scratches
Dineen
O'Brien
Galchenyuk
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Roster Notes: Forwards Nick Schmaltz and Jay Beagle were activated off Injured Reserve and played in their first games since Oct. 25 and Nov. 21, respectively.
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What's Next:The Coyotes are right back at it and take on the Philadelphia Flyers Saturday night (Dec. 11) at Gila River Arena. Puck drop with the Flyers is set or 7 p.m. and will be broadcasted on Bally Sports Arizona and Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.
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Photo of the Game: Former-Coyotes Ray Whitney and Shane Doan pose for a photo with Loui Eriksson and his family to celebrate the forward reaching the 1,000 game milestone on Monday. Eriksson was honored with a pregame ceremony ahead of Friday's contest.
