Golden Knights at Hurricanes preview

GOLDEN KNIGHTS (30-11-4) at HURRICANES (21-17-8)
6 p.m. ET; FS-CR, ATTSN-RM, NHL.TV

A victory of any kind would give the first-year Golden Knights 66 points, one more than the Eastern Conference-leading Tampa Bay Lightning. They are eight points ahead of the second-place San Jose Sharks in the Pacific Division and two ahead of the Nashville Predators for first place in the Western Conference. Vegas, which lost 4-3 in overtime at the Florida Panthers on Friday, is 1-1-1 entering the finale of a four-game trip and 15-2-3 in its past 20 games.
The Hurricanes snapped a two-game losing streak with a 3-1 win at the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday in their first game after a five-day break. Elias Lindholm scored two power-play goals.
Carolina defeated Vegas 3-2 in a shootout on Dec. 12.

Players to watch

Golden Knights forward William Karlsson has 10 points (eight goals, two assists) in his past nine games.
Hurricanes center Jordan Staal has seven points (three goals, four assists) in his past seven games.

They said it

"When you look at the road trip, there are some real good teams we're playing. For the most part, we're playing well and working hard, and that's all I can ask of my guys. Keep working, and hopefully that last game in Carolina is a real good game for us." -- Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant
"It's a quick turnaround, obviously. It's a fortunate situation that we've played them. We've got some idea how they play. They're a real good team, they play with a lot of pace throughout all four lines. We will dig in and see what we can come up with." -- Hurricanes coach Bill Peters

Golden Knights projected lineup

Jonathan Marchessault -- William Karlsson -- Reilly Smith
David Perron -- Erik Haula -- James Neal
Brendan Leipsic -- Cody Eakin --
Alex Tuch
William Carrier -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Oscar Lindberg
Brayden McNabb -- Nate Schmidt
Shea Theodore
-- Deryk Engelland
Brad Hunt -- Colin Miller
Marc-Andre Fleury
Malcolm Subban
Scratched:Ryan Carpenter
Injured:Tomas Nosek (upper body), Oscar Dansk (lower body), Jon Merrill (undisclosed), Luca Sbisa (hand)

Hurricanes projected lineup

Elias Lindholm -- Jordan Staal -- Teuvo Teravainen
Brock McGinn -- Victor Rask -- Justin Williams
Jeff Skinner -- Derek Ryan -- Lee Stempniak
Joakim Nordstrom -- Marcus Kruger --
Phillip Di Giuseppe
Jaccob Slavin -- Justin Faulk
Noah Hanifin -- Trevor van Riemsdyk
Roland McKeown
-- Klas Dahlbeck
Cam Ward
Scott Darling
Scratched:Lucas Wallmark, Haydn Fleury, Josh Jooris
Injured:Brett Pesce (upper body), Sebastian Aho (concussion, lower body)

Status report

Neither team held a morning skate. … The Golden Knights assigned defenseman Jason Garrison to Chicago of the American Hockey League on Saturday. … The Hurricanes recalled McKeown from Charlotte of the AHL on Saturday.

Stat pack

Neal scored his 20th goal of the season against the Panthers; he has 20 or more goals in each of his first 10 NHL seasons. Marchessault has 16 points (six goals, 10 assists) in his past 14 games. … Carolina has scored eight power-play goals and six even-strength goals in its past six games.