TAMPA, Fla. -- Every advantage was there for the Tampa Bay Lightning. They were at home against a lesser opponent playing a backup goalie on the tail end of a back-to-back.

Up 3-2 in the third period, the Lightning let two points slip away in the wild-card chase when the Arizona Coyotes rallied for a 5-3 win on Tuesday night at Amalie Arena.

"To know how important the game is for us, 3-2 lead at home going into the third in a must-win for us, to give it up like we did, that's frustrating to say the least," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said.

Tampa Bay (34-29-9) lost its third straight as it struggles to stay in the wild-card mix, remaining four points behind eighth-place Toronto while playing one more game than the Maple Leafs.

Arizona (27-37-9) got its first win in four games to bounce back on the road.

"We made some mistakes that young teams are going to make -- I think we have nine guys in our lineup tonight on entry-level contracts," Coyotes coach Dave Tippett said. "Coming in to play a desperate team that needs points, it was a good experience for us."

The Coyotes killed off two power plays in the final six minutes, getting a short-handed, empty-net goal from Connor Murphy with 1:36 left to put the game away. Louis Domingue stopped 36 shots -- including all 13 he faced in the third period -- to win his fourth straight start.

"I thought our guys were in real good spirits all day -- you wonder in a tough back-to-back like this, but they were loose and ready to play," Tippett said.

Arizona came in with the second-fewest points in the NHL, having lost three straight while being outscored 6-1 in their previous two games. Instead, the Lightning gave up five goals for the third game in a row in a defensive letdown that Cooper said left little chance for a win.

"To give up five, five and five, all of the sudden, defending hasn't become important," Cooper said. "If you're not going to defend, you're not going to win. Our guys have to get that back inside them."

Oliver Ekman-Larsson tied the score in the third period with his 12th goal of the season, beating Andrei Vasilevskiy high and to the left on a shot that caromed in off the left post.

Only 1:45 later in four-on-four play, Radim Vrbata beat Vasilevskiy for his 18th goal of the season and a 4-3 lead with 13:21 left.

The Lightning got a power play with 5:53 remaining when Nikita Kucherov was tripped on his way to the net but couldn't convert with a top-five power-play unit against one of the league's five worst penalty-kill units. They picked up another with 2:41 left but managed to give up a goal playing six-on-four hockey.

Twice, the Lightning came back from one-goal deficits and even had a 3-2 lead to start the third period, but the Coyotes scored twice in less than two minutes to grab a 4-3 lead.

The Lightning, down 2-1 midway through the second period, rallied for two goals and a 3-2 lead entering the third period.

Tampa Bay took the lead on a fortunate bounce. Vladislav Namestnikov's shot on a two-on-one breakaway bounced off the left post, up and off the shoulder of Coyotes left winger Anthony Duclair, who was trailing Namestnikov, and past Domingue for the go-ahead goal with 1:52 left in the period.

The Lightning tied the score with 8:10 left in the second period on Kucherov's 34th goal of the season, a wide shot off a pass from Ondrej Palat to make it 2-2. Less than two minutes earlier, Arizona pulled ahead on a goal by Christian Dvorak, his 12th of the season, with 9:54 left.

The teams each scored a goal in the first period.

Arizona's goal came after Vasilevskiy mishandled a puck behind the net and Lawson Crouse's pass toward the goal ricocheted off Christian Fischer and into the net before Vasilevskiy could recover.

The goal was the third of the season for Fischer, who was recalled from Tucson earlier Tuesday.

Tampa Bay tied the score at 1 when defenseman Victor Hedman scored on a four-on-four breakaway, getting his 15th goal of the season with 10:15 left in the first period against Domingue.

NOTES: Both teams continue to play without key players who have lingering injuries -- Tampa Bay was without C Tyler Johnson and C Cedric Paquette, both missing their sixth straight games with lower-body injuries. C Greg McKegg was a healthy scratch. ... Arizona played without C Shane Doan (third game, lower body), D Kevin Connauton (10th game, upper body) and C Alexander Burmistrov (11th game, upper body), with D Zybnek Michalek and LW Teemu Pulkkinen healthy scratches. The Coyotes recalled RW Christian Fischer from AHL Tucson before the game, sending down F Laurent Dauphin.