SUNRISE, Fla. -- Speed defines Jonathan Marchessault.

He is fast and, on Thursday night, he scored fast -- twice in 26 seconds -- breaking a tie and leading the Florida Panthers past the Arizona Coyotes 3-1 at BB&T Center.

"He gave us a huge boost," Panthers interim coach Tom Rowe said of Marchessault, who has 25 goals this season in his breakout year. "He is probably the purest goal scorer we have on the team."

Both of Marchessault's goals came in a second period dominated by Florida. After trailing 1-0 at the end of the first period, the Panthers outshot Arizona 19-4 and outscored the Coyotes 3-0. The Panthers also got a controversial goal by Shawn Thornton, a score that occurred while the net was tipping over.

That big second period was enough to carry Florida (32-30-11) to victory. The Panthers improved to 4-10-1 in their past 15 games, moving to within seven points of the Boston Bruins in the race for the final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference.

Florida has nine games to play, and Boston has eight. However, the Panthers would have to leapfrog four teams to make the playoffs.

So, with the playoffs a long shot, the Panthers at least kept the pressure on the teams they are chasing. James Reimer made 22 saves.

Arizona (27-38-9), which was eliminated from playoff contention on Monday, fell to 4-3-1 in its past eight games. Coyotes goalie Mike Smith was busy, making 36 saves.

Tobias Rieder, who beat the Panthers with an overtime goal Jan. 23 in Arizona, scored again on Thursday. It was his 16th goal of the season, but it wasn't enough.

Rieder scored the only goal of the first period. He intercepted a cross-ice pass from Panthers defenseman Mark Pysyk and raced in alone on Reimer, beating him high to the stick side with a backhand-to-forehand move.

Florida tied the score 1-1 with 12:22 left in the second period on a goal that was credited to the Panthers only after a video review. The puck was clearly in, but at issue was whether Thornton scored before Smith and Coyotes teammate Jordan Martinook made contact and dislodged the net, accidentally or otherwise.

The net tipped over, caving in on Smith pretty much the way the season has caved in on Arizona.

"I was told that both goal pegs were still in the pegs," Coyotes coach Dave Tippett said. "The net wasn't technically off the pegs ... so the goal counted."

Smith was understandably upset.

"I haven't seen that before, and it's a (call) I don't fully agree with," Smith said. "When the net is almost fully down on the ice, I didn't think that was going to count."

Smith said he barely touched the net.

"It was Martinook in a battle (with Panthers winger Colton Sceviour) behind the net," Smith said. "The stick got wrapped up, and it ended up pushing the net down. I had no opportunity to make a save there. The net was on the back of my neck."

Thornton, a 39-year-old fourth-line forward who is likely playing his final NHL season, also said he wasn't sure the goal would count.

"There's a reason I didn't go fist bump the bench," said Thornton, who got just his second goal of the season. "It wasn't the prettiest goal of my career. But I'll take them any way I can get them at this point."

The goal by Thornton -- once it stood and the horn finally sounded -- opened the proverbial floodgates for Florida, and Marchessault took advantage.

Marchessault's first goal happened when Aleksander Barkov came up with a loose puck along the left boards and made a nice pass over a sprawled Arizona defenseman. All Marchessault had to do was redirect the puck into the open right side of the net.

On his second goal, Marchessault was on the left. After a cross-ice feed from Thomas Vanek, Marchessault cranked a hard wrist shot just over the head of Smith, capping Florida's big second period.

"It's been our Achilles' heel," Smith said of the second period. "When other teams elevate their play, we don't push back enough."

NOTES: Panthers D Aaron Ekblad, who missed four games due to a concussion and then returned on Tuesday, was out of the lineup again. This time, he missed due to a sore neck -- unrelated to the concussion -- and was replaced by D Jakub Kindl. ... The Panthers were also without G Roberto Luongo (lower-body injury) and C Denis Malgin (concussion). ... Panthers C Michael Sgarbossa was a healthy scratch. ... Arizona scratched RW Shane Doan (lower body), D Kevin Connauton (upper body); C Alexander Burmistrov (concussion). Doan, the team captain, missed his fourth straight game. ... Healthy scratches for Arizona were D Zbynek Michalek and LW Teemu Pulkkinen. ... Arizona has two more stops on its five-game road trip: Saturday at the Washington Capitals and Monday at the St. Louis Blues. ... Florida plays host to the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday and then plays four straight on the road.