Devils at Golden Knights
Coming off a successful five-game road trip, the Vegas Golden Knights are inching closer to a Pacific Division title in their first year of existence. The first-place Golden Knights own a 12-point lead over San Jose with 13 games to play as they prepare to open a four-game homestand against the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday night.
Vegas has won three in a row to cap off a 4-1-0 road trip that kicked off with a 3-2 win at New Jersey, which snapped a three-game slide. Marc-Andre Fleury allowed two goals or fewer in each of the four victories on the trek and reached a milestone by becoming the 13th goaltender in history with 400 wins in Monday's 3-2 triumph at Philadelphia. New Jersey had lost four of five before opening a six-game road trip with a 3-2 shootout victory at Nashville on Saturday, snapping the Predators' 10-game winning streak. The Devils are holding down the final playoff slot in the Eastern Conference, one point behind Columbus and three ahead of the Florida Panthers.
TV: 10 p.m. ET, MSG Plus (New Jersey), AT&T Sportsnet-Rocky Mountain (Vegas)
ABOUT THE DEVILS (35-26-8): New Jersey has scored more than two goals in regulation only twice in the past 11 games and is scraping to find offense from someone other than Taylor Hall, who has 31 points more than anyone else on the team. Defenseman Sami Vatanen is doing his part at both ends of the ice, collecting 12 points over the past 12 games and playing at least 23 minutes 11 times in that span. Forward Travis Zajac, who sat out Saturday after injuring his back in the previous game, returned to practice Tuesday.
ABOUT THE GOLDEN KNIGHTS (45-19-5): Fleury, who missed two months earlier in the season after suffering a concussion, joined Roberto Luongo and Henrik Lundqvist as the only active goaltenders to amass 400 victories. "He's been playing phenomenal and making huge saves when we need it," Vegas defenseman Deryk Engelland said. "He's been doing that all season." Forward Ryan Carpenter, a waiver-wire pickup in December, netted the game-winning tally against Philadelphia and has scored all eight of his goals in the past 18 games.
OVERTIME
1. Fleury needs one win to tie Chris Osgood for 12th place on the all-time list.
2. Hall has been held off the scoresheet in back-to-back games after collecting at least one point in each of his previous 26 contests.
3. Golden Knights F Erik Haula scored his ninth power-play tally Monday after scoring twice with the man advantage in his first four seasons.