Panthers rally past Coyotes to keep wild-card pace

The Florida Panthers scored four straight third-period goals to keep pace in the Eastern Conference wild-card race with a 4-2 win against the Arizona Coyotes at BB&T Center in Sunrise, Florida on Saturday.

Vincent Trocheck scored twice for the Panthers (38-28-7), who are three points behind the New Jersey Devils for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference with two games in hand. The Devils defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1.
"We didn't look like we had any legs in the first period and I think we were all just sort of looking around and looking for an answer," Florida coach Bob Boughner said. "We almost needed something to get us going and I thought we got better as the game went on."
WATCH: [All Coyotes vs. Panthers highlights]
Denis Malgin scored the tiebreaking goal with 3:45 remaining. His shot hit the crossbar and dropped into the net for a 3-2 lead. Jamie McGinn scored into an empty net at 19:46 for the 4-2 final.
Darcy Kuemper made 43 saves for the Coyotes (25-39-11), who were 7-5-1 in 11 games and 13-5-2 in 20 before losing two straight.
"We looked fast and then some guys got a little tired and we got a little sluggish with our details," Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet said. "They've got some high-end players and they started to make a push in the third and we just couldn't make that play."

Trocheck tied it 2-2 with his 30th goal of the season at 9:33 when he pushed a loose puck into the net during a scramble in the crease. The Coyotes challenged for goaltender interference on McGinn, but the call on the ice was upheld.
"This is the kind of game that we need to be playing down the stretch," Trocheck said. "Obviously, every game is a playoff game for us, meaningful hockey. We just said we don't want to look back on this game and have this be the one that kept us out of the playoffs."
Trocheck made it 2-1 at 6:13 with a high wrist shot to the short side from the bottom of the right face-off circle.
Clayton Keller gave the Coyotes a 1-0 lead at 14:36 of the first period. Richard Panik passed across the crease to Keller, who settled the bouncing puck and pushed it into the net from the left post.

Keller's 22nd goal tied Peter Mueller (2007-08) for the Coyotes rookie goal-scoring record, and his assist on Panik's goal gave him 13 multipoint games, a Coyotes rookie record.
Panik gave the Coyotes a 2-0 lead on a power play at 1:33 of the second period. Derek Stepan's shot from the point deflected off Panik's body and trickled between James Reimer's pads.

Goal of the game

Malgin's goal at 16:15 of the third period.

Save of the game

Reimer's save against
Dylan Strome
at 13:25 of the third period.

Highlight of the game

Trocheck's goal at 9:33 of the third period.

They said it

"We have a couple games left and every game is now important. We're just going to push until the end." -- Panthers forward Denis Malgin
"Obviously, they're desperate in the position they're at and they just kind of kept coming. Unfortunately, we couldn't hold them off." -- Coyotes goalie Darcy Kuemper

Need to know

Panthers defenseman Keith Yandle has 12 points (one goal, 11 assists) in his past 12 games. … Panthers forward Aleksander Barkov has 20 points (six goals, 14 assists) in his past 16 games and 31 points (11 goals, 20 assists) in his past 25 games. … Keller has 11 points (four goals, seven assists) in an eight-game point streak. … Stepan has eight points (one goal, seven assists) in a four-game point streak. … Coyotes defenseman Trevor Murphy, 22, played 10:39 in his NHL debut after being recalled from Tucson of the American Hockey League on Tuesday.

What's next

Panthers: At the New York Islanders on Monday (7 p.m. ET; MSG+, FS-F, NHL.TV)
Coyotes: At the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday (7:30 p.m. ET; SUN, FS-A PLUS, NHL.TV)