The Arizona Coyotes were unable to hold onto yet another third period lead en route to a 5-3 loss against the Philadelphia Flyers. 20240212_Tourigny_Postgame Going into this game, the Coyotes were on a five-game losing streak as they have seemed to struggle stringing a full 60 minutes together. The Coyotes came to play in the first period. They had an overall strong period, controlling the pace of play and Matt Dumba’s goal put them up 1-0 after the first 20 minutes of play. After that, everything changed for the worse. It was like a flip just switched with the Flyers beginning to completely dominate the Coyotes. Arizona committed a total of seven penalties through the final 40 minutes of play which made matters even worse. The Coyotes escaped the second period with a 3-2 lead, but their struggles would only continue. Philadelphia scored three unanswered goals, stealing the game away from Arizona in what ended up being a very disappointing night. “There's a few common themes, we have to stay out of the box, that's one thing.” coach André Tourigny said. “They played hard on the other side, I liked the way the guys adjusted on their breakout.” The Coyotes have now given up third period leads in their past two games, leaving the team frustrated for what could have been. “We've had leads in the last two games, and everything's on the line for us, we need these points, and we didn't get them,” Nick Bjugstad said. “It stinks and we're not feeling too great right now.” Arizona’s chances to make the playoffs continue to look slim now as they continue to lose games and falter in the standings. It will be an uphill battle for the Coyotes to climb back into playoff contention, but obviously it’s still not impossible. They will look to get back on track in their next matchup on Wednesday night against the Minnesota Wild.
