In Tampa, the Coyotes’ Travis Boyd and Christian Fischer scored in the first period to give Arizona a 2-0 lead on Saturday night.
“That wasn’t our A-plus road game,” Fischer said. “You’ve got to keep it simple. We had too many turnovers and you can’t do that, especially against a team like this. We’ve had success on the road before. We have to get back to our grinding nature and the play will open up.”
That advantage evaporated in the mist of Tampa Bay and the Lightning grabbed a 5-3 win.
“If you look at the momentum of the game, I think we battled hard,” Arizona coach Andre Tourigny said. “It was a good game. Our PK needs to be better. It’s concerning right now. We need to have more pride and urgency in our PK.”
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves in the Lightning win.
Brayden Point scored midway through the first period to cut the Coyotes lead to 2-1.
“I do like the way we kind of regrouped after that second goal,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “We really didn’t give much up after that in the first period and we got better as the game went along.”
Tampa tied near the mid point of the second period on a goal from Mikhail Sergachev.
“It was a tough start, going down 2-0 and then going on the PK,” Hedman said. “Great kill by us and we gained some momentum. ‘Pointer’ worked his magic, batting it out of there, and got us going. That was big for us.”
Steven Stamkos scored his 498th NHL goal on the power play to give the Lightning a 3-2 lead, but Nick Bjugstad tied for the Coyotes, 3-3.
Arizona dropped to 13-17-5.
“We had the lead and the game turned, it was toe-to-toe,” Tourigny said. “I don’t think there were many swings in the momentum. It was a 60-minute, hard-fought battle on both sides.”
Tampa reclaimed the lead on a late second period marker form Alex Killorn, 4-3.
Brandon Hagel scored off the power play in the third for the 5-3 final.
“I actually thought I scored first, so I was really relieved,” Hedman joked. “Great tip by ‘Hags’ in front. It was another great goal by the power play, and when that’s clicking, we are going to be a tough team to beat.”
Karel Vejmelka made 30 saves in the loss.
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