Golden Knights look to clinch Pacific title vs. Blues, Sharks

It’s nearly air-conditioner weather in the Las Vegas Valley, with temperatures expected to peak in the mid-80s this weekend.

And on the subject of warming up, how about that Pacific Division race?

The Golden Knights keep stubbing their toe on the way to the finish line — the latest example was Wednesday’s loss at home to last-place Arizona — allowing second-place San Jose to remain in contention for the division title.

As a result, the back-to-back that starts at 7:30 p.m. Friday against the St. Louis Blues at T-Mobile Arena takes on greater significance for the Knights (48-22-7, 103 points).

San Jose (44-24-10, 98 points) visits at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the final regular-season home game. San Jose, which lost 5-3 to Nashville on Thursday, remains five points behind the Knights.

“We want to finish out the season the right way here,” Knights goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury said. “San Jose is catching up a bit, so we have to get some points here if we want to keep that lead.

“You don’t want to jump ahead, right? We’ve still got a game on Friday and focus on that one first. Take care of business against (St. Louis) and figure it out.”

Of course, it’s not all doom and gloom for the Knights, whose inconsistent play throughout March allowed San Jose to climb back into the division race.

The Knights, who were off Thursday and have five games remaining, control their own destiny and can clinch the division title with victories over the Blues (43-28-5, 91 points) and Sharks.

“We’ve got two really big games here,” Knights center Erik Haula said. “St. Louis is playing well. They’re cringing their teeth right now. … It’s going to be a battle, and it’s going to be a playoff game, so we’ve got to be ready for that.”

St. Louis led the Western Conference standings on Nov. 30, but a 17-19-3 stretch followed and general manager Doug Armstrong waved a virtual white flag at the trade deadline when he moved center Paul Stastny to division rival Winnipeg for a first-round pick.

The Blues were mired in a six-game winless streak (0-5-1) and one point out of the wild card at the time of the deal.

They enter Friday’s game winners of six straight and own the top wild card in the Western Conference.

“I know we’re in the playoffs, but we’re not worried about the playoffs right now,” Knights coach Gerard Gallant said before Wednesday’s 3-2 loss to Arizona. “We’re worried about finishing the regular season, and when April 8th or 9th comes, we’ll sit down and we’ll talk about who our opponent’s going to be and get ready for them. We can’t worry about the playoffs right now because we’ve got some work to do.”

The Knights are 7-5-2 in March — the five losses match their most in any month — with five of those wins coming against teams currently out of the playoffs (Detroit, Buffalo, Calgary, Vancouver and Colorado).

The bigger concern for Gallant heading into the weekend is his team’s recent propensity for starting slow.

The Knights, who own the league’s third-best record when scoring first (32-5-2), have trailed or been in a scoreless tie after the first period in six of their past eight games.

“We’ve just got to match their desperation,” Knights wing Alex Tuch said Wednesday. “We’ve got to think, ‘Hey, it’s about time for playoffs. We’ve got to get ready.’

“Playoff hockey is desperation hockey. So we want to be prepared, we want to be ready and we want to play that style of game. And it’s just being hungry and wanting to win, and that’s what we’ve got to figure out for the last (five) games.”

Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.