Golden Knights at Flyers
The Philadelphia Flyers suffered a five-game losing streak after ascending to the top of the Metropolitan Division and look to begin moving forward again with a second straight victory when the Vegas Golden Knights pay a visit Monday night. The Flyers are third in the Metropolitan Division, three points out of first place after a huge 2-1 victory over Winnipeg on Saturday afternoon.
“You don’t want to let games pile up the wrong way against, especially at this time of year and the way our race is going,” Philadelphia defenseman Andrew MacDonald told reporters. “For us to be able to come in tonight and have a great, complete game was really big for the team.” The Flyers hope to complete the season sweep after a 4-1 victory Feb. 11 against the Pacific Division-leading Golden Knights, who have won three of four on their five-game road trip. Vegas allowed one goal while winning the last two games, capped by Saturday’s 2-1 shootout triumph at Buffalo as Marc-Andre Fleury made 31 saves for his 399th career victory. “It wasn’t one of our best games,” Golden Knights center Erik Haula told reporters Saturday. “That was pretty evident. You just have to find ways. If you hold a team under two goals, you should win the game.”
TV: 7 p.m. ET, Sportsnet, AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain (Vegas), NBCS Philadelphia
ABOUT THE GOLDEN KNIGHTS (44-19-5): Vegas is still without two key forwards combining for 46 goals as Reilly Smith (upper-body) returned home for further evaluation and James Neal (lower-body) has missed nine of the last 10 games. Jonathan Marchessault leads the team with 65 points, but has been kept off the scoresheet in four straight games, while William Karlsson tops the Knights with 35 goals. Veteran forward David Perron is tied with Karlsson for second on the team with a career-high 61 points and has 45 assists - 10 more than any other season.
ABOUT THE FLYERS (35-23-11): Captain Claude Giroux continues to pad his resume for a run at the Hart Trophy with two goals and five assists during a six-game point streak. Jakub Voracek is tied for the league lead with 58 assists through Saturday and notched three goals in the past five games to push his season total to 74 points - seven from his career high in 2014-15. Robert Hagg is expected to miss two weeks with a lower-body injury, fellow defenseman Johnny Oduya (upper-body) is day-to-day and rookie blue liner Travis Sanheim was recalled.
OVERTIME
1. Fleury, who is 24-9-3 with a .930 save percentage this season, can join 12 other goalies with 400 victories after his next triumph.
2. Philadelphia C Sean Couturier is one goal from 100 for his career, but is mired in an 11-game drought.
3. The Flyers are 2-for-26 on the power play over the last eight games while Vegas is 2-for-19 in the past seven.