Coyotes down Panthers, 3-1

In Tempe, the Arizona Coyotes scored twice in the third period en route to a 3-1 win over the visiting Florida Panthers, on Tuesday night.

Nick Ritchie and Clayton Keller scored in the third period.

Karel Vejmelka made 41 saves in the Coyotes win.

“Our goalie stopped 41 pucks, our penalty kill shut down a team like Florida and our power play scored two goals,” Coyotes coach Andre Tourigny said. “That’s a pretty good recipe. I hope we can cut and paste it.”

Arizona improved to 3-5-1, it was their first win at Mullett Arena.

“It was a great win against one of the best teams in the League, and we really deserved it,” Vejmelka said. “We were really hard to play against and we played well defensively.”

Ritchie hit for a power play goal.

“We got a lot of chances, we’re playing pretty sound hockey, it’s just not being able to capitalize and put it in the back of the net,” Florida forward Sam Bennett said. “We grinded right to the end. We’re not going to lose too many hockey games if we play like that.”

Lawson Crouse scored off the power-play to tie the game, 1-1, in the second period.

The Panthers took a 1-0 lead in the second period off a goal from Colin White .

Florida dropped to 5-4-1.

“The first 10 minutes of the third period is where we lost the hockey game,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “We didn’t accept after 40 minutes it was still a tight game. We did a lot of things we haven’t done this year, uncharacteristic play. … Our transition game disappeared; we were trying to beat people 1-on-1.”

The Coyotes were 2-for-4 on the power play.

“I’ve said it many times, the power play is a matter of execution,” Tourigny said. “The pass has to be fast and be quick, and we need to be crisp. When we were zipping the puck; it was beautiful and we scored.”

Keller hit an empty-net goal with under two minutes left in the third for the 3-1 final.

Spencer Knight made 18 saves in the Panthers loss.

“In the end, we’ve always got to find a way to win,” Knight said. “I think that starts with me. I usually like to do that and come up with big saves at big moments, but obviously I couldn’t do that tonight.”