SUNRISE, Fla. _ The Arizona Coyotes reside in the basement of the Western Conference standings, their draft lottery odds a more important number than nearly anything else for them this season. They outscored just one other NHL team. Their defense was better than just one other team in the West. Their goal differential hovers near the bottom.
Their season has long been over, the calendar flipped to a rosier future rather than the dreary present. It didn't matter, at least not for two periods.
The Florida Panthers and forward Vincent Trocheck erased a two-goal deficit entering the third period to come from behind and beat the Coyotes, 4-2, on Saturday night at the BB&T Center, a result badly needed and one that allowed the team to keep pace in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
Denis Malgin scored the game-winner with 3:45 remaining in the third period to lift the Panthers. Malgin's shot from the slot tucked itself over Darcy Kuemper's right shoulder and under the crossbar.
The win buoyed the Panthers playoff hopes, despite New Jersey's win over Tampa Bay on Saturday. Florida remains three points out of a playoff spot with two games in hand on the Devils. Nine games remain.
Saturday's game was supposed to serve as an easy opportunity to pick up points. As the Devils clashed with the league's best team, the Panthers drew the league's second-worst. It was a home game that followed three road ones and preceded four more road tests. The Coyotes had nothing to win for; the Panthers, everything.
But Florida emerged flat in the first period. They couldn't find a rhythm in a period highlighted by stoppages and Arizona rookie forward Clayton Keller's goal. Keller's goal capped a possession off the rush for Arizona in which he found himself all alone on the side of the net. He banged home a backhand shot past James Reimer.
The second period didn't start any better. Forty seconds into the period, the Panthers were called for too many men on the ice. The Coyotes capitalized 53 seconds after that, with Richard Panik deflected a shot home on the power play.
It was another Panthers goal allowed in the first two minutes of a period. In each of Florida's last four losses entering Saturday night, it allowed a goal in the first two minutes of a period. Arizona tried to test the theory.
Then Trocheck took over.
He ignited the sleepy _ and sometimes discourteous _ crowd with a big hit late in the second period. He got the Panthers on the board with a goal 6:13 into the third period, a laser past Kuemper after walking off the goalline. Then he knotted the game 3:20 later.
After Mark Pysyk's shot clanged off the post, Jamie McGinn pushed into the crease. McGinn took up space. Trocheck found what little there was. The puck rested on the side of the crease and Trocheck reached around both McGinn and Arizona defenseman Luke Schenn to poke the puck past Kuemper.
Arizona challenged the play for goaltender interference, but a review confirmed the call on the ice. The game was tied. Trocheck rescued the Panthers.
The goal was Trocheck's 30th of the season, extending what was already a career-high mark for the 24-year-old center. During a season in which the Panthers have asked him to play with a litany of linemates, he's thrived. On a night when his team was asked to wipe away a two-goal, third-period deficit, he did.
Trocheck's heroics saved the Panthers from a second straight loss. It would have been the team's second time since the All-Star break with back-to-back losses after losing in Columbus 4-0 on Thursday night.
"This time of year, you can't live with those games and wake up and talk and think about it," Panthers coach Bob Boughner said before the game. "We understand, we addressed what went wrong and out preparation today is all about Arizona."
McGinn added an empty-netter with 13.2 second remaining.
Reimer started in place of Roberto Luongo, who Boughner deemed day-to-day with a minor upper-body injury.
