The Vegas Golden Knights will look to stretch their winning streak to four games under new head coach John Tortorella when they continue a four-game road trip against the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday night.
Vegas (35-26-16, 86 points) improved to 17-14-7 on the road this season with a 5-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday night.
“I think we’re buying into the mindset of just playing fast hockey, checking and moving our feet and playing teams really tight and aggressively and getting up in people’s faces,” Vegas forward Colton Sissons said. “We’re kind of building our confidence back and our swag in that department, so it’s been good.”
With the win, the Golden Knights are one point back of the Oilers for the top seed in the Pacific Division and five points up on the fourth-place Los Angeles Kings entering Monday’s action.
Jeremy Lauzon and Brett Howden each had a goal and an assist for the Golden Knights, who have points in five straight (3-0-2). Sissons, Mark Stone and Rasmus Andersson also scored while Carter Hart made 31 saves and Jack Eichel added three helpers.
Andersson extended his point streak to four games (three goals, two assists).
Under Tortorella, who replaced Bruce Cassidy on March 29, Vegas is working to be more aggressive on pucks.
“We have emphasized so much as far as checking forward, playing aggressive, moving the puck forward, pressuring, so you get aggressive. It’s our job now as coaches, and this always happens, to coach them to an area where we’re not crazy as far as some situations without playing safe. You have to find that happy medium,” Tortorella explained. “I would rather coach a team that is over-aggressive rather than trying to get a team to play aggressive. We have good people. We’ll get there.”
Vegas heads to Vancouver looking to complete the three-game series sweep of their Pacific Division rivals. The Golden Knights picked up a 5-2 win on Feb. 4 and began their current winning streak by doubling up the Canucks 4-2 on March 30.
Vancouver (22-46-8, 52 points), the first team eliminated from playoff contention, has dropped back-to-back games and is 1-8-0 in its past nine.
The Canucks fell 7-4 to the visiting Utah Mammoth on Saturday night.
“We were working hard. We really came out strong in the first. Then we had two turnovers late that they capitalized on,” Canucks coach Adam Foote said.
“It’s been frustrating because there’s been some goals that have gone in that shouldn’t go in. It’s that simple.”
Linus Karlsson scored twice, Jake DeBrusk and Marco Rossi also tallied and Filip Hronek had two assists. Goaltender Nikita Tolopilo made 17 saves for the Canucks, who are 8-26-5 on home ice this season.
Forward Evander Kane returned to the lineup after missing two games with an undisclosed injury, while goaltender Kevin Lankinen was a late scratch due to illness.
“Like most of the games, we had some really good stretches during the games, but then we have bad ones too,” Karlsson said. “It feels like we play so great sometimes, and then we just fall back to old (stuff), so it’s kind of frustrating.”
