Panthers Down Blues, NHL Roundup

By ESPN

The Florida Panthers began their five-game road trip near the back of a crowded field in the Eastern Conference playoff race. After sweeping the trip they're near the top of the Atlantic Division.

Vincent Trocheck scored with just under 5 seconds remaining to lift the Panthers to a 2-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Monday night.

"It felt like we won the Stanley cup for just a second," Trochek said. "I think to do it with four seconds on the clock, we showed a lot of poise there in the third period, even when they tied it up."

Jonathan Marchessault also scored and James Reimer stopped 26 shots to help the Panthers complete a 5-0 road trip -- their first perfect trip of at least that many games in franchise history.

Reimer has won five straight decisions and has not lost in regulation since Jan. 7 against Boston, going 6-0-1 since.

The Panthers moved into a tie with Boston for third place in the Atlantic Division, but have the edge because they have a game in hand on the Bruins.

"It's a great group of players and everybody deserves it," said Panthers interim coach Tom Rowe, "It's been a long season, it's been a hard season and now everything is coming together but again we've got a long way to go. It's going to be a dog fight until the end of the season."

Kyle Brodziak, playing for the second time after missing 10 games due to a broken foot, scored for the Blues and Jake Allen finished with 31 saves. St. Louis lost its second straight since winning six in a row.

"We had 30 seconds left to salvage a point in a game that we played not good," Allen said. "Those are huge points right now. Couldn't end up with two points and it slipped away."

Marchessault opened the scoring when he beat Allen short side for his 17th goal of the season in the middle of the first period.

Brodziak tied about three minutes into the second when he put Ryan Reaves' rebound past Reimer for his seventh.

Trocheck won it with his team-leading 21st.

St. Louis dominated the offensive action in the first period, outshooting Florida 12-8. The Panthers then outshot the Blues 25-15 the rest of the way.

St. Louis dropped to 7-3 under Mike Yeo and remains third in the Central Division, three points ahead of Nashville. The Blues don't play again until visiting Chicago on Sunday.

"We should have a bad taste in our mouth for a couple days," Yeo said. "We've got this break now and what I hope happens is we take some time to think about our situation as far as finishing off the season, and the situation that we're in."

Coyotes 3, Ducks 2

Marek Langhamer made enough saves in a relief appearance in his NHL debut to help the Arizona Coyotes get another big win.

Langhamer replaced starter Mike Smith early in the third period and stopped two point-blank shots in the closing seconds, helping the Coyotes hold off the Anaheim Ducks 3-2 Monday night.

"It was tough to jump right into it, but guys played a great game in front of me," said Langhamer who had seven saves on eight shots. "Obviously I'm thankful for that and happy I could do it."

Radim Vrbata capped Arizona's three-goal first period and the Coyotes won for the fourth time in six games. Christian Dvorak and Jakob Chychrun also scored for Arizona, and Smith had 27 saves before leaving about 4 1/2 minutes into the third period after a blow to the back of his head.

Smith, the Coyotes' All-Star, was fine after the game, coach Dave Tippett said, and was ordered to come out after a concussion spotter saw Smith take a helmet to the back of his head. He's not expected to miss any time.

Langhamer, called up from the AHL on an emergency basis late last week with backup Louis Domingue dealing with injury, helped kill a power play after being pressed into action.

He gave up Ryan Getzlaf's second goal of the night and 11th of the season with 26.8 seconds to play, but gathered himself and stopped a rebound shot from Corey Perry just before the final horn.

"He's a real calm kid," Tippett said. "When you know he's going to be all right is the first couple of times he touched the puck he was playing outside the net, didn't look nervous at all."

Jonathan Bernier gave up three goals on six shots in the first period for the Ducks, who have lost six of nine. Starting goalie John Gibson, who played in the 1-0 win over Los Angeles on Sunday night, came on to start the second and stopped all 14 shots he faced.

"Looks bad on him (Bernier), but I think you have to blame this one on his teammates," Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said.

Dvorak's backhand off a pass from Shane Doan gave the Coyotes the lead 2:02 into the game. It was Dvorak's sixth goal in the past nine games.

Ryan White delivered a pinpoint cross to Chychrun in the middle, and the young third-line defenseman beat Bernier at 4:46.

Vrbata's 12th came courtesy of Ducks defenseman Sami Vatanen's skate. His shot caromed off Vatanen and into the goal, though officials originally ruled it a non-goal with Arizona's Martin Hanzal also in the vicinity of the net.

Monday, February 20 Scoreboard

Florida 2, St. Louis 1

Arizona 3, Anaheim 2

Tuesday, February 21 Schedule (All Times Central)

Ottawa at New Jersey, 6 p.m.

Montreal at New York  Rangers, 6 p.m.

Pittsburgh at Carolina, 6 p.m.

Winnipeg at Toronto, 6:30 p.m.

New York Islanders at Detroit, 6:30 p.m.

Edmonton at Tampa Bay, 6:30 p.m.

Calgary at Nashville, 7 p.m.

Chicago at Minnesota, 7 p.m.

Los Angeles at Colorado, 8 p.m.