Coyotes Sneak by Panthers

     The Florida Panthers finished a three-game homestand with a 3-1 loss over the Phoenix Coyotes on Tuesday night at BB&T Center. The Cats have lost three of their last four games and seven of nine.
     Late in the first period on the first power play for Phoenix(31-24-11), Mike Ribeiro scored with a deflection in front on a one-time slapshot from the right point by Keith Yandle at 17:43. He got the feed from Radim Vrbata at the top of the zone. Yandle continued on his four-game point streak and now has nine points in the last nine games. Ribeiro has always been Panthers killer as he collected his tenth goal and 23rd point against the Cats in 23 games.
     The Coyotes extended their lead to 2-0 midway through the second period at 9:53. Vrbata passed the puck from the left circle to Oliver Ekman-Larsson at the blue line and his wrist shot sailed over the left shoulder of Roberto Luongo.
     Florida(24-34-7) fell further behind at 5:52 of the third period as they were down 3-0. Antoine Vermette came down the left side on a two-on-one, passed across to Vrbata in the right circle and he snapped home a shot into a half-open net.
     The Panthers broke the shutout on their fourth power-play attempt of the game at 8:53 as Brandon Pirri picked up his first goal as a Florida player. Dmitry Kulikov carried the puck at the blue line and moved it to Pirri who rocketed a slapshot from the top left circle by Mike Smith.
     The Cats were 1-for-5 on the power play while the Coyotes went 1-for-3. Luongo made 23 saves as his record dropped to 20-18-6 and Smith moved to 24-19-10 as he stopped 31 of 32 shots.