Florida Panthers vs Arizona Coyotes final score 2-1: Last-minute goal edges Panthers over Coyotes
Coyotes cannot hold off Florida Panthers in final minutes of the game, fall 2-1 in regulation
So… How about them Panthers?
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The Arizona Coyotes fell in the final minutes of Thursday night’s game, in a 2-1 loss to the Florida Panthers in Sunrise, Florida.
Not the Coyotes’ worst game this season by a long shot, the final score was determined by a beautiful pizza goal netted by Scottie Upshall- fresh out of the box. Until that point, though, the teams had been evenly matched at a 1-1 score- and it was looking like this game would be a repeat of Saturday night.
The Florida Panthers have drastically improved over last year, and it showed in their evenly matched play with the Arizona Coyotes. Where they had slightly less certain scorepower (and the Coyotes had some defensive holes, mainly while Michael Stone was on the ice in an off night for the blue liner), Panthers netminder Roberto Luongo held down the fort at his own end of the ice.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson continued to be dominant on the power play, notching an assist on Martin Hanzal’s goal when he chipped a slightly off-target puck towards Hanzal and the net late in the first period.
The Coyotes could have walked home with a win had they played a slightly cleaner game, but the second period hurt the team overall. At one point, the Desert Dogs were down not one man, but two- and sure enough, those weakened minutes of play allowed Brandon Pirri to slip one past Mike Smith to even up the score.
The two teams would remain in a 1-1 lock until 10:56 into the third period. Coming off a penalty kill, Scottie Upshall would skate out of the box- and smoothly pick up the puck to dump it behind Smith in order to put his team up 2-1. The Coyotes would be unable to bring the score back to a tie, and the game ended with the Coyotes bringing home yet another loss.
2-1 is far better than 7-3, and Mike Smith’s play reflected that improvement. The team heads to Raleigh, North Carolina on Saturday to face off the Carolina Hurricanes. Hopefully. this can put the Arizona squad back on a winning track.
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