The Florida Panthers snapped a two-game losing streak and kept their faint playoff hopes from flat-lining with a 3-1 win over the Arizona Coyotes at the BB&T Center.
Florida is now seven points behind the Boston Bruins (with a game in hand) for the Eastern Conference’s final playoff spot with nine games left in the season.
In order to pass the Bruins, the Cats would also need to climb over the Carolina Hurricanes, Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Islanders.
Visiting Arizona took the lead 3:20 into the first period when Tobias Rieder picked off Mark Pysyk’s crossing pass attempt and took it all the way down the ice before flipping the puck over James Reimer for his sixteenth of the season.