GAME DAY: Golden Knights get another crack at first-place Calgary

The Golden Knights open a back-to-back against the top two teams in the Pacific Division on Friday when James Neal and the first-place Calgary Flames visit T-Mobile Arena.

Opening faceoff is 3 p.m., and the game will be televised on AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain.

The Knights are coming off a 3-2 overtime win at Arizona on Wednesday, two nights after they endured a 7-2 drubbing at Calgary.

“There’s no ‘payback’ or anything like that,” defenseman Nate Schmidt said. “It’s our game needs to get on a consistent track, and in order to do that, you have to do the same things consistently in order to build your foundation and move forward.

“That’s the biggest thing about our group is that you see it, and then you don’t. You see it, then you don’t. You need to keep seeing it. Keep seeing what we need to do.”

The Knights (10-12-1, 21 points) did not hold a morning skate Friday, and no lineup information will be available until coach Gerard Gallant meets with the media at approximately 1 p.m.

Winger Daniel Carr was recalled from the American Hockey League on Thursday and could make his debut with the Knights.

Carr was tied for the AHL scoring lead with 22 points (nine goals, 13 assists) at the time of his call-up. The 27-year-old scored six goals and 16 points in 38 games with Montreal last season and has 34 points in 94 career NHL appearances.

Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury is expected to start and is 3-1-0 with a 2.22 goals-against average and .923 save percentage in his past four games.

The Knights face second-place San Jose on Saturday to complete the two-game homestand.

“We like the way Fleury is playing, and if things go real well, we’ll see and we’ll make a decision,” coach Gerard Gallant said Thursday. “But you can’t say today Fleury is going to play both the next two games because I never do that with any situation. We’ll see where it goes. We’ll see how he plays, see how the game goes and we’ll go from there.”

Calgary (13-8-1, 27 points) enters on a three-game win streak and owns the division’s top goal differential at plus-9.

Neal, who was a key contributor to the Golden Knights’ run to the Stanley Cup Final, signed a five-year, $28.75 million contract with the Flames as a free agent. He remains one point shy of 500 in his NHL career.

Calgary pounded Winnipeg 6-3 on Wednesday and became the fourth team in NHL history to score five or more goals in the first period in consecutive games.

The Flames lit up the Knights for five goals in the first period Monday, and their top line of Johnny Gaudreau, Elias Lindholm and Sean Monahan accounted for three goals and five assists in the victory.

Matthew Tkachuk leads Calgary with 12 goals and 27 points, which ranks sixth in the league.

David Rittich has taken over as the No. 1 goaltender for the Flames and owns an 8-1 record with a 2.04 goals-against average and a .930 save percentage.

The Flames placed forward Michael Frolik (lower body, day-to-day) on injured reserve Thursday and also announced defenseman Michael Stone is out indefinitely with a blood clot in his arm.

Defenseman Oliver Kylington and forward Ryan Lomberg were recalled from Stockton (AHL) on Friday.

Golden Knights projected lineup

Forwards

Jonathan Marchessault-William Karlsson-Reilly Smith

Max Pacioretty-Cody Eakin-Alex Tuch

Tomas Nosek-Ryan Carpenter-Daniel Carr

William Carrier-Pierre-Edouard Bellemare-Ryan Reaves

Defensemen

Brayden McNabb-Nate Schmidt

Shea Theodore-Deryk Engelland

Nick Holden-Colin Miller

Goaltender