Coyotes thump Lightning, 4-1

In Tampa Bay Monday night, Trevor MurphyJakob ChychrunBrendan Perlini and Clayton Keller struck for goals in a 4-1 win for the Arizona Coyotes over the Lightning.

“I was kind of hard on them in practice the other day, and they responded,” Arizona coach Rick Tocchet said. “I liked the way we played tonight.”

The Lightning remain two points clear of the Boston Bruins for the top spot in the Atlantic Division with a record of 51-21-4.

Nikita Kucherov scored the only goal for Tampa Bay.

“Guys were trying, it was just one of those things where we lost our confidence a little bit when some of the things weren’t going our way,” Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “We would get in the offensive zone and we were almost like one and done. It was one at the net and then there was a whistle, we just couldn’t get our mojo going in the offensive zone.”

Antti Raanta made 19 saves to pick up the win.

“I think we played so good in the first two periods, so we didn’t want to change anything,” Raanta said. “I think that we were still pushing hard in the third period. You know a team that’s losing 2-0 is going to make a push, so you just need to make the push also and I think we weathered the storm and it was good.”

Keller has a nine-game point streak working with five goals and 12 points.

“I think we’re trying to treat every game like a playoff game,” Keller said. “We kind of get up for that and we just want to come out and finish the year strong and hopefully bring something home for next year.”

The Coyotes improved to 26-39-11.

[WATCH: All Coyotes vs. Lightning highlights]

Louis Domingue made 31 saves in the loss and was left out to dry by his defense much of the night.

“We were definitely not as sharp offensively as we have been,” the Bolts’ Anton Stralmansaid. “I think we had some good looks, we just weren’t able to find the back of the net.”