Recap: Coyotes Rally Late, Fall to Panthers

SUNRISE, FLORIDA -- The Coyotes made a late push for a dramatic comeback Thursday night, but it came up short and Arizona lost, 4-2, to the Florida Panthers at the BB&T Center.

Trailing 3-1, Brad Richardson tallied a six-on-five goal with 2:26 to play to pull Arizona to within a goal. But the Coyotes couldn't score again and allowed Aleksander Barkov to notch an empty-net insurance goal with 50 seconds left.
It was a disappointing defeat for a team that hadn't played since Monday at Tampa Bay.
"I think we were trying, but we were just sloppy," Coyotes Head Coach Rick Tocchet said. "I don't know, it's upsetting because a couple of guys were just not ready and they were sloppy. I know pressure is hitting this team, but you have to be prepared."

• Michael Grabner gave the Coyotes a 1-0 lead when he scored his NHL-leading sixth shorthanded goal of the season at 7:45 of the first period. It was also the team's 16th "shortie" of the season, a franchise record.
Grabner lost a face-off in Arizona's zone but quickly gained control of the puck, skated it up the ice and beat Panthers goalie Roberto Luongo with a breakaway shot. The entire sequence took eight seconds.

"I don't think I had my stick all the way down yet, so I was going to kind of yell at the ref for dropping the puck too early, but it worked out at the end," said Grabner, who credited Richardson for feeding him the puck so quickly after the lost draw.
The 1-0 lead lasted until Barkov beat Coyotes goalie Darcy Kuemper with a nifty wrist shot with just 15 seconds left in the first.
"We did have a lead, but then we kind of messed up there," Richardson said. "We got caught watching a little bit, and you get a guy like Barkov, he's going to make a play and he did."

The Panthers added a power-play goal in the second period and an even-strength goal early in the third to build its 3-1 lead. Jonathan Huberdeau produced the primary assist on Florida's first three goals.
• The Coyotes controlled play for most of the third period and took 16 shots on Luongo, who hadn't played since March 7. But the veteran goalie was sharp.
"I thought we had a good third," Richardson said. "It's just tough to come back ... I didn't think we were ready to go at the start and I don't know why. We chased the game."
• Jason Demers skated 18:15, blocked three shots and took two shots on goal in his 600th NHL game.

• Kuemper, who made his 15th consecutive start, stopped 18 of the 21 shots he faced in the defeat, Arizona's fifth in a row at the BB&T Center.
• With the loss, the Coyotes slipped into a tie with Colorado in the Western Conference standings. Both teams have 78 points, and both teams have eight games to play, including one against each other at Pepsi Center on March 29. Meanwhile, the Minnesota Wild are just one point behind with eight games left.
Arizona will conclude its four-game road trip with matinees at New Jersey on Saturday and at the New York Islanders on Sunday.
"These are big stakes," Tocchet said. "I know pressure is there and we're going to have to handle pressure. There's going to be higher-pressure games than this ... We've done a lot of good things to get in this position; now you've got to knock the door down. We're knocking on it, but now the hard part starts. It's easy to finish in second place. It's hard to win. We've got to make sure we've got to be prepared to play."