Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored the 100th goal of his All-Star career to break a deadlock late in the third period as part of a two-goal game and goalie Antti Raanta made 42 saves as the Arizona Coyotes beat the Calgary Flames 5-2 in NHL action Monday night in Glendale, Ariz.
With the score tied 2-2, Max Domi fed Ekman-Larsson as they crossed the blue line. Ekman-Larsson beat Flames goalie Mike Smith with a wrist shot from the top of the left circle with just 3:41 left in regulation to the delight of the Gila River Arena crowd. Ekman-Larsson and Domi each scored empty-netters in the final two minutes of the game.
The victory came with Arizona head coach Rick Tocchet away for his mother’s funeral.
Following a scoreless first period, in which Raanta made several big saves to keep the Flames off the scoreboard despite their edge in play, both teams took a turn taking a lead but blowing it in the second frame.
Arizona’s Richard Panik opened the scoring at the 5:15 mark of the second period. While all five Flames were mesmerised by Clayton Keller as he held the puck in the Calgary zone, Panik was left wide open and one-timed the cross-ice pass past Smith. The Flames responded with a pair of goals. First, Dougie Hamilton tied the game at 9:05 by whistling a short-side shot after getting the puck at the point and moving down to the right faceoff dot. With his 16th goal of the season, Hamilton is tops among NHL defensemen.
Then, Sean Monahan put Calgary ahead with a rebound goal at the 15:28 mark. After Raanta made a scintillating save on Johnny Gaudreau, Monahan buried the loose puck for his 31st goal of the season, which ties his career high. It was also Monahan’s 64th point, a new personal standard.
But Domi pulled the Coyotes even just 123 seconds later. Domi batted down Micheal Ferland’s ill-advised cross-ice pass inside his own blue line and promptly tallied on his ensuing breakaway to make it 2-2. Domi finished with three points.
Smith stopped 25 shots for the Flames, who have dropped three straight and likely need to run the table over their final eight games to make the playoffs.

Panthers beat Canadiens 
Aaron Ekblad and Aleksander Barkov scored as the Florida Panthers defeated the host Montreal Canadiens 2-0 on Monday night at the Bell Centre.
Panthers goalie Roberto Luongo, a Montreal native, made 28 saves to earn his third shutout of the season. He snapped a personal two-game losing streak and is 7-2-1 in his past 10 contests.
Luongo also tied Ed Belfour and Tony Esposito for ninth place on the NHL list with 76 career shutouts.
The Panthers have shut out Montreal three straight times this season, the first time Florida has done that to any team.
Ekblad’s goal, his 15th of the season, tied his career high. Barkov’s goal, his 26th, is two short of his career best. He also has 71 points this season, the most by a Panthers player since Olli Jokinen 10 years ago.
With the win, the Panthers (79 points) now trail the idle New Jersey Devils by just three points in the battle for the final wild-card playoff berth in the Eastern Conference. The Panthers have two games in hand on the Devils.
Montreal, out of playoff contention, lost for the eighth time in its past nine games, including three in a row.
However, Montreal goalie Antti Niemi - who played for the Panthers earlier this season - was superb, making 38 saves.
The Panthers opened the scoring on a goal by Ekblad, who spent five minutes in the penalty box earlier in the period after coming out on the losing end of a fight with Montreal forward Nicolas Deslauriers.
Ekblad, who was seen with an ice pack under his left eye while in the penalty box, got more than even when he beat a defender to a loose puck in the slot, stick-handled past a second Canadiens skater and then beat Niemi with a backhander.
Montreal seemed to tie the score 17 seconds later when Artturi Lehkonen’s wraparound pass found Jacob de la Rose out in front for an easy goal. But the Panthers challenged, and a video replay showed the Canadiens were offsides, negating the goal.
Florida extended its lead to 2-0 with 6:23 gone in the third period. A wrist shot by Barkov deflected in off of Montreal defenseman Noah Juulsen. Nick Bjugstad picked up one of the assists, giving him 21 points in his past 21 games.

RESULTS
Columbus 5 Boston 4 
Nashville 4 Buffalo 0 
Florida 2 Montreal 0 
Los Angeles 4 Minnesota 3 
Arizona 5 Calgary 2