The Pacific Division-leading Vegas Golden Knights will look to extend their win streak to three games when they visit the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday night.
The Golden Knights (47-22-8, 102 points) entered Monday five points up on the Los Angeles Kings in the division and six points back of the Winnipeg Jets in the President’s Trophy race.
Victor Olofsson’s late third-period goal broke a tie as Vegas edged the host Vancouver Canucks 3-2 on Sunday night and improved to 8-2-0 in their last 10 games.
“Obviously that matters,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said when asked about being ahead by five points in the Pacific Division. “It’s more about us getting our game in order and playing the right way… I thought we did a real good job controlling the rush game… I liked our game.”
Adin Hill, who made 19 saves in the win, has made 48 starts, going 30-13-5 with a .906 save percentage and a 2.49 GAA.
Center Jack Eichel paces the Golden Knights with 66 assists and 93 points in 76 contests. Pavel Dorofeyev has a team-leading 33 goals in 77 games this season.
Tuesday is the third and final meeting between the Avalanche and Golden Knights. Vegas doubled up Colorado 8-4 on Oct. 9 while the Avalanche picked up a 2-1 victory on Nov. 27.
Colorado (47-27-4, 98 points) opens a brief two-game homestand with plans to get back into the win column after falling 5-4 to the red-hot St. Louis Blues on Saturday.
The Avalanche, third in the Central Division, are seven points back of the second-place Dallas Stars with a game in hand and five points up on the streaking Blues.
Ross Colton, Miles Wood, Nathan MacKinnon and Sam Malinski scored for the Avalanche, who erased a 4-0 deficit in vain. The loss was just third in nine outings (6-2-1).
“I liked the fact that we stuck with it and didn’t let it get out of hand because there was a point there where it might,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “We had a tough time getting going. Just not ready to start the game. I thought our top guys had a tough time getting going (on Saturday) and they struggled a little bit.
“But the bottom six forwards did a nice job, stuck with their identity and work ethic, scored a couple big goals for us. So, there’s things to like through our lineup and there’s other things I really didn’t like.”
MacKenzie Blackwood, 22-10-3 with a .916 save percentage and a 2.23 GAA this season, made 17 saves in the loss.
MacKinnon owns a team-leading 32 goals and 83 assists in 78 games this season. Entering Monday, his 115 points were three ahead of Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov in the scoring race as MacKinnon seeks his first Art Ross Trophy.
–Field Level Media
