Knights looking for quick payback against Ducks

After moving into sole possession of first place in the Pacific Division with a Saturday night victory over Arizona, the Vegas Golden Knights continue a season-long seven-game homestand with a New Year's Eve matinee against Anaheim on Tuesday in Las Vegas.

The 4-1 victory over the Coyotes moved the Golden Knights, who sputtered out of the gate to begin an inconsistent season, two points ahead of Arizona and Vancouver, three points in front of Calgary and four ahead of fifth-place Edmonton in a tightly bunched Pacific.

"I'd be lying if I said it didn't feel good," Vegas coach Gerard Gallant said when asked about taking over sole possession of first place. "I think we still have a lot more in the tank. We can be a lot better and more consistent, and we'll be that moving on from here."

Gallant was asked if he thought his team made a statement to the rest of the division with its impressive win over Arizona.

"It felt like it was," Gallant said. "I mean, we'll see going forward. I hope that we can bottle this game tonight and play like that every night. It's tough to do, but I liked our intensity from the drop of the puck. I liked the way we competed and played hard."

The Golden Knights, behind a pair of goals by Mark Stone, led 4-1 after just 22 minutes and then cruised home. The dominating victory came after an ugly 7-3 home loss to Colorado before the Christmas break and a 4-3 loss at Anaheim on Friday in the front half of a back-to-back after the break.

"It's so close," said goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, who made 27 saves while picking up his 454th career victory to move into a tie with Curtis Joseph for sixth place on the NHL's all-time wins list.

"Every night you don't know who's going to win the games. The parity is so good around the league. When you have a bad one you have got to put it behind you quickly and focus on the next one and try and get those points. I think that's what we did, losing (at Anaheim) and getting the win now."

The rebuilding Ducks, who have won just two of their 10 all-time meetings with Vegas, come in off a 2-1 overtime loss to visiting Philadelphia on Sunday. Erik Gudbranson scored 35 seconds into the game, but the Ducks failed to build on the early lead and eventually lost on Kevin Hayes' breakaway goal with 1:07 left in overtime.

Anaheim, which began the season by winning nine of its first 15 games, is just 7-12-5 since and hasn't won back-to-back games since Oct. 29 (7-4 over Winnipeg) and Nov. 1 (2-1 in overtime over Vancouver).

"It seems like we take a step forward and a step back constantly," said Ducks head coach Dallas Eakins. "That's part of the grind. That's part of the challenge of this league, especially with us transitioning as an organization."

Still, the Ducks are just eight points out of the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference and would close to within nine points of Vegas with a win on Tuesday.

"It's about consistency," said goaltender John Gibson, who had 26 saves in Friday's win over the Golden Knights and followed up with 33 stops against the Flyers. "We have a lot of young guys. It's tough to be good every night. We're learning it the hard way."

--Field Level Media