GAME DAY: Knights looking for 3rd consecutive win vs. San Jose

The Golden Knights look for their third consecutive victory when they meet the Pacific Division-leading San Jose Sharks on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena.

Opening faceoff is 7 p.m., and the game will be televised on AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain.

Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury will make a rare start in the second game of a back-to-back against the Sharks, coach Gerard Gallant announced after morning skate.

Fleury blanked Calgary on 29 shots Friday in a 2-0 victory for his league-high fourth shutout.

Malcolm Subban started the second game in the Knights’ previous three back-to-back scenarios and went 0-3.

The only time Fleury played on back-to-back days last season was Oct. 6 and 7, 2017, the opening two games in franchise history.

“He played real well last night. He feels good today and everything’s great,” Gallant said. “No travel involved, so it’s an easy back-to-back. An afternoon game and a night game. He gets lots of time to rest.

“We don’t like when we have to travel and you have to play guys back-to-back. It happens sometimes. We think it’s a good situation for him to go back-to-back, especially the way he played.”

No other lineup changes are expected after the Knights won their second straight Friday and improved to 6-3-1 at home.

The Knights won a season-high three games in a row between Oct. 13 and Oct. 20.

“I think we just try and carry our momentum that we’ve had our last couple games and make sure we’re focused on skating,” defenseman Nick Holden said. “When our team is skating, we’re a very effective team. We’ll just make sure we’re doing that again tonight.”

San Jose (12-7-4, 28 points) leads the Pacific Division by one point after silencing Vancouver 4-0 on Friday. Aaron Dell made 19 saves for his second straight shutout.

Martin Jones was announced as Saturday’s starter as the Sharks’ open a five-game road trip.

Brent Burns leads San Jose in scoring with 24 points, including 21 assists.

San Jose owns the No. 2 penalty kill in the league at 89.7 percent and rank third in fewest shots allowed at 28.3 per game. The Knights are No. 1 in shots allowed per game at 26.9.

“We’re playing good teams,” Gallant said. “They’re going to be battle games and division games, and they’re all important. They’re big games right now. They’re fun to play, fun to be involved in.”

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

Marc-Andre Fleury