Flyers at Golden Knights
The Vegas Golden Knights finished a satisfying six-game road trip with four wins and look to continue their dominance on home ice Sunday as they host the Philadelphia Flyers. The expansion Golden Knights are kicking off a seven-game homestand and improved to 19-3-2 at T-Mobile Arena by knocking off Pacific Division-rival San Jose 5-3 on Thursday.
“We had some struggles, but at the end, we found a way to win, and that’s awesome,” Vegas leading scorer Jonathan Marchessault told reporters on Thursday. “Any win in the West is a big game, and teams are going to come ready to play us. To get four wins, especially on the road against good teams, that’s big.” Marchessault and Reilly Smith each have recorded three straight two-point performances for the Golden Knights while the Flyers are bringing a four-game point streak (3-0-1) into Sunday's matchup. Philadelphia started a quick two-game road trip with a 4-3 shootout victory at Arizona on Saturday as Jakub Voracek extended his point streak to eight games with his league-leading 53rd assist of the season. The Flyers climbed into third place in the Metropolitan Division with the victory and are just one point behind Pittsburgh for second with one game in hand.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, NBCS Philadelphia, AT&T SportsNet-Rocky Mountain (Vegas)
ABOUT THE FLYERS (27-19-9): Brian Elliott made 24 saves in the victory on Saturday before suffering a lower-body injury in the shootout and giving way to Michal Neuvirth, who likely will get the start against Vegas. Captain Claude Giroux scored his 197th career goal Saturday versus Arizona to push his season total to 62 points - two behind Voracek, who has collected three goals and eight assists during his streak. Defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere registered a pair of assists in Saturday’s win to extend his point streak to five contests.
ABOUT THE GOLDEN KNIGHTS (36-14-4): Vegas has scored a power-play goal in nine straight games, going 12-for-25 during that stretch to improve their overall percentage to 21.1. Marchessault tops the team with 54 points and David Perron has registered four goals and 11 assists over his last 11 contests to move within one of his first 50-point season since 2013-14 with Edmonton. William Karlsson needs one goal to reach 30 for the first time in his career and owns a plus-30 rating, which leads the league.
OVERTIME
1. Vegas C Erik Haula has recorded six goals in his last eight games while LW James Neal has scored in back-to-back contests.
2. Philadelphia RW Wayne Simmonds scored on Saturday and is one away from reaching the 20-goal plateau for the fifth straight season.
3. It will be the first-ever meeting between the teams, who will face off in Philadelphia on March 12.