Lightning suffer crushing loss to Coyotes
TAMPA, Fla. -- The Tampa Bay Lightning took the kind of loss they can no longer afford to take Tuesday night, losing a third-period lead and falling 5-3 to the Arizona Coyotes at Amalie Arena.
Tampa Bay (34-29-9) lost its third straight as it struggles to stay in the wild-card mix, remaining four points behind eighth-place Toronto while playing one more game than the Maple Leafs.
Arizona (27-37-9) got its first win in four games to bounce back on the road.
The Coyotes killed off two power plays in the final six minutes, getting a short-handed empty-net goal from Connor Murphy with 1:36 left to put the game away. Louis Domingue stopped 36 shots -- including all 13 in the final period -- to win his fourth straight start.
Tampa Bay went into the night needing to pick up two points under ideal circumstances -- at home, against a lesser opponent playing with a backup goalie on the tail end of a road back-to-back set. Arizona came in second-worst in the NHL in points in the standings, having lost three straight and outscored 6-1 in their previous two.
The Lightning got a power play with 5:53 remaining when Nikita Kucherov was tripped on his way to the net, but couldn't convert with a top-five power-play unit against one of the league's five worst penalty-kill units. They picked up another with 2:41 left, but managed to give up a goal playing 6-on-4 hockey.
Twice, the Lightning came back from one-goal deficits and even had a 3-2 lead to start the third period, but Arizona scored twice in less than two minutes to grab a 4-3 lead.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson tied the game with his 12th goal of the season, beating Andrei Vasilevskiy high and to the left on a shot that caromed in off the left post. Only 1:45 later in 4-on-4 play, Radim Vrbata beat Vasilevskiy for his 18th goal of the season and a 4-3 lead with 13:21 left.
The Lightning, down 2-1 midway through the second period, rallied for two goals and a 3-2 lead entering the third period.
Tampa Bay took the lead on a fortunate bounce. Vladislav Namestnikov's shot on a two-on-two breakaway bounced off the left post, up and off the shoulder of Coyotes left winger Anthony Duclair, who was trailing Namestnikov, and past Domingue for the go-ahead goal with 1:52 left in the period.
The Lightning tied the score with 8:10 left in the second period on Kucherov's 34th goal of the season, a wide shot off a pass from Ondrej Palat to make it 2-2. Less than two minutes earlier, Arizona pulled ahead on a goal by Christian Dvorak, his 12th of the season, with 9:54 left.
The teams each scored a goal in the first period.
Arizona's goal came after Vasilevskiy mishandled a puck behind the net and Lawson Crouse's pass toward the goal ricocheted off Christian Fischer and into the net before Vasilevskiy could recover.
The goal was the third of the season for Fischer, who was recalled from Tucson earlier Tuesday.
Tampa Bay tied the score at 1 when defenseman Victor Hedman scored on a four-on-four breakaway, getting his 15th goal of the season with 10:15 left in the first period against Domingue.
NOTES: Both teams continue to play without key players who have lingering injuries -- Tampa Bay was without C Tyler Johnson and C Cedric Paquette, both missing their sixth straight games with lower-body injuries. C Greg McKegg was a healthy scratch. ... Arizona played without C Shane Doan (third game, lower body), D Kevin Connauton (10th game, upper body) and C Alexander Burmistrov (11th game, upper body), with D Zybnek Michalek and LW Teemu Pulkkinen healthy scratches. The Coyotes recalled RW Christian Fischer from AHL Tucson before the game, sending down forward Laurent Dauphin.