The Vegas Golden Knights will carry a scoreless stretch of over 147 minutes into their game against the host Nashville Predators on Saturday afternoon.
The Golden Knights have been shut out in the last two contests, including a 4-0 home loss to the Utah Mammoth on Thursday night.
Vegas’ most recent goal came last Saturday in the second period of its 4-0 win over the visiting Chicago Blackhawks.
“We were turning down opportunities to shoot,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said after the loss to the Mammoth. “There comes a time you’ve got to shoot the puck in those situations. They’re not grade A’s, but they’re grade B-pluses. We got to put it on the net. We’ve got to trust our shot. These guys are all goal scorers who score in this league.”
The most recent Vegas scorer was Pavel Dorofeyev, whose 34th goal of the season came on a power play with 7:09 left in the second period of the victory over the Blackhawks.
The Golden Knights (31-24-14, 76 points) are in a playoff spot, but only a precarious third place in the Pacific Division, four points clear of the Los Angeles Kings.
“When you get to this time of year, you’re starting to pay attention for sure,” defenseman Noah Hanifin said. “You want to control what you can, but there’s not a whole lot of time left. We don’t have too many games left here. So, we got to get on a bit of a run here and give ourselves some ground.”
Goaltending was also an issue on Thursday as Adin Hill allowed the first three goals on three shots in the opening 8:12. He was pulled in favor of Akira Schmid, who made 14 saves.
The Predators (31-28-9, 71 points) are just outside of the Western Conference playoff picture after beating the visiting Seattle Kraken 3-1 on Thursday.
The Kraken have the same record as Nashville, which has won its last two to move a point out of the final wild-card spot.
“We know where we stand with those guys,” said Ryan O’Reilly, who scored a goal vs. Seattle. “We’re in the fight with them. Definitely an emotional game. We needed to come out strong and have a good start, and I thought we did. The win was exciting. It’s just a massive win for us. We’ve got to continue. It’s not getting any easier, but that’s something hopefully we can build off of and get some momentum here at home.”
Filip Forsberg had a goal and two assists and Ryan Ufko also scored. Forsberg has five points (two goals, three assists) in the last two games.
Justus Annunen stopped 25 shots. He played because No. 1 goaltender Juuse Saros was a late scratch with an upper-body injury and is day-to-day. Matt Murray was recalled from the American Hockey League but did not make it to the bench until halfway through the game.
“It’s kind of my job to be ready,” Annunen said. “I just tried to do everything the same if I would be playing or not. Of course, it’s always like a whole different feeling when you know you’re not supposed to play, but I try to be prepared and do everything as same as possible.”
