In Tempe, after Milan Lucic staked the Calgary Flames to a 1-0 lead in the first period, the Coyotes responded with a three-goal outburst to take a 3-1 lead in the middle frame.
The Flames had their own reply, it was a five-goal string in a 6-3 win on Wednesday night.
The Flames scored twice in the second period to send the match to the third stanza tied, 3-3.
In the third, Calgary’s Jakob Pelletier and Walker Duehr scored 24 seconds apart to deflate the Coyotes.
Dan Vladar made 12 saves in the Flames win.
Calgary improved to 27-20-11.
The loss ended the Coyotes’ nine-game point streak at 5-0-4.
“They were desperate, faster, heavier in battle than us and played a better game than us,” Arizona coach Andre Tourigny said.
Arizona got goals from Nick Schmaltz, Clayton Keller, and Matias Maccelli in the middle frame for the 3-1 lead.
“I know we’re capable of being a tough team to play against, we’re capable of playing good hockey every night,” Tourigny said. “If everybody will play their A-game, we can beat anybody, but the truth is, a B-night is not good enough for us.”
Elias Lindholm kicked off the Calgary rally at 12:56 of the second off a power play goal.
“Even when we were down 3-1, and there’s some nerves going on there, we knew sooner or later they’re going to go in, with a lot of chances and a lot of shots,” Lindholm said.
Arizona dropped to 20-29-9.
Lindholm reached 500 career NHL points with two points on the night.
“We were talking before [the third period] and saying our season is on the line and we need to get very important points,” Lindholm said. “We played a solid game and stuck with it and got that result.”
Tyler Toffoli tied the game, 3-3, head to the third period.
“The tough part was we knew how they were going to play, but we didn’t have a response for it,” Coyotes defenseman Juuso Valimaki said. “We’ve got to do a better job with the lead and grind it out.”
Mikael Backlund added a power play goal late in the third period for the 6-3 final.
“We’re just kind of trying to keep things simple and things are kind of working for us,” Pelletier said. “If you want to win you have to score goals, right? For me as a newbie, I think our line, we’ve got to produce. … I think now is the time to step up and score goals.”
Karel Vejmelka made 45 saves in the loss.
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