RECAP: Coyotes strike twice on the power play in win over Panthers

Falling short on the first stop of their four-game road trip, the Florida Panthers were on the wrong end of the special teams battle in a 3-1 loss to the Arizona Coyotes at Mullett Arena on Tuesday.
While the Panthers went 0-for-3 on the power play, the Coyotes went 2-for-4.
"Our power play has struggled this year," Panthers forward Sam Bennett said. "We're still grinding away. It's important to get that power play rolling. I'm sure we're going to figure it out. Once we do, it's going to make our team that much more dangerous."

Although there's still work to be done on the man advantage, the Panthers shined at even strength once again despite not getting rewarded with more goals. Per NaturalStatTrick.com, they led Arizona 51-28 in shot attempts, 18-12 in scoring chances and 1-0 in goals at 5-on-5.
By the time the final horn sounded, Florida also led 4.41-2.94 in expected goals.
"We got a lot of chances," Bennett said. "We're playing pretty sound hockey, it's just not being able to capitalize and put it in the back of the net. It's frustrating when you can't score, but we're still playing good hockey right now."
Following a scoreless first period, the Panthers got on the board when Colin White stuck out his stick while cruising through the slot and deftly re-directed a point shot from Josh Mahura past Karel Vejmelka to make it 1-0 at 8:24 of the second period.

On the power play, the Coyotes evened up the score when Lawson Crouse, who was originally selected by the Panthers with the 11th overall pick in the 2015 NHL Draft, threaded a wrist shot between Spencer Knight's left arm and pad to make it 1-1 at 13:47.
In the third period, the Coyotes cashed in on the power play again when Nick Ritchie took a pass from Clayton Keller and fired a rising shot over Knight's glove and into the back of the cage from the slot to make it 2-1 at 8:55.
Moments earlier, Knight had made two huge stops - one on a backhand from Crouse from in front and the other on a one-timer from Barrett Hayton from the right circle - while on the penalty kill.
"The first 10 [minutes] of the third period is where we lost the hockey game," Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said. "We had done what we needed to do and didn't accept through 40 minutes that it was still a tight game. Then those first 10 minutes we did a lot of things we haven't done much this year, uncharacteristic plays. We put ourselves in that position."
After pulling their goalie in favor of the extra attacker late in regulation, the Panthers came up empty despite a mustering multiple shots on goal. With 1:07 left on the clock, Keller squashed any hope of a comeback for the Cats when he buried an empty-netter to extend Arizona's lead to 3-1.
Vejmelka made 41 saves, while Knight stopped all 18 shots he faced at even strength.
"It's a hard-fought game," Bennett said. "We grinded right until the end. I think we're not going to lose too many games if we play like that. You don't want to take too many negatives from that game."

KEY QUOTES

"Obviously we stuck together and played a great team game. In the end, we've just got to find a way to win. I think that starts with me and being a little better on my end. I think I need to be able to give the team life in situations in tight games. That's something that I pride myself on."- Spencer Knight
"I think we were doing a good job of shooting the puck and getting traffic to the net. I think more traffic would've helped, for sure. Sometimes it just won't go in. That's part of the game. We'll find a way to put it in the back of the net next time." - Sam Bennett
"There's lots of chances each night where you have good players that aren't connecting on their shot or missing or it's bouncing. They're not getting a lot of breaks around the net, which is fine. You can and should still win hockey games as long as you don't do what we did in the first 10 minutes of the third period." - Paul Maurice

CATS NOTES

• Gustav Forsling blocked a team-high four shots.
  - Every single skater for the Panthers had at least one shot on goal.
  - Brandon Montour saw a game-high 28:11 of ice time.
  - Radko Gudas led the Panthers with five hits.
  - Florida has recorded 151 shots on goal over its last three games.

WHAT'S NEXT?

Heading from the desert to the coast, the Panthers (5-4-1) will continue their road trip with a matchup against the San Jose Sharks (3-8-1) at SAP Center on Thursday at 10:30 p.m. ET.