GAME DAY: Malcolm Subban to start for Golden Knights vs. Panthers

Malcolm Subban will start in net Thursday when the Golden Knights open a back-to-back against the Florida Panthers.

Opening faceoff is 7 p.m. at T-Mobile Arena, and the game will be televised by AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain.

“They’ve got some real high-end skill and they look for that stretch pass once in a while, so make sure you try and eliminate that stuff,” coach Gerard Gallant said. “I want us to play the same way we played the other night. A lot of emotion, physical hockey, going to the nets, getting lots of scoring chances. That was a great game the other night, and hopefully we’ll see some more of that.”

The Knights (33-26-5, 71 points), who play at Anaheim on Friday, are coming off a 4-1 victory over Dallas that snapped a three-game losing streak.

Max Pacioretty, skating with newcomer Mark Stone, scored twice and the Knights outshot the Stars 21-1 in the third period. Pacioretty is tied with Jonathan Marchessault for the team lead with 20 goals.

Subban has won three of his past four starts dating back to Dec. 29 with a 1.76 goals-against average and .949 save percentage in that span.

This is the final game of a four-game homestand for the Knights.

Florida (28-25-9, 65 points) is nine points back of the second wild card in the Eastern Conference and set to miss the postseason for the 16th time in the past 18 seasons.

The Panthers, who are 5-1-1 since Feb. 14, complete a three-game road trip.

“We know how we want to start at home, and we want to start fast, and play the same hard, physical game we played last game,” said winger Ryan Carpenter, a Florida native.

Goaltender Roberto Luongo, who has never faced the Knights, is projected to start for the Panthers. The 39-year-old earned his 485th career victory Monday at Colorado to pass Ed Belfour for third on the all-time list.

Florida is one of nine teams with four 20-goal scorers — Mike Hoffman (28), Aleksander Barkov (26), Evgenii Dadonov (22) and Frank Vatrano (20).

Jonathan Huberdeau, the team’s second leading scorer with 61 points, is three goals shy of joining his teammates in the 20-goal club.

“They have a couple guys, elite players, and we can’t give them any time and space,” right wing Alex Tuch said. “I thought we limited our mistakes last game and … we have to play a very similar style of play and I think if we come out just as physical and with as much speed as we did last game, we’ll have a lot of success.”

Golden Knights projected lineup

Forwards

Jonathan Marchessault-William Karlsson-Reilly Smith

Max Pacioretty-Paul Stastny-Mark Stone

Ryan Carpenter-Cody Eakin-Alex Tuch

Tomas Nosek-Pierre-Edouard Bellemare-Ryan Reaves

Defensemen

Nate Schmidt-Deryk Engelland

Brayden McNabb-Shea Theodore

Jon Merrill-Colin Miller

Goaltender

Malcolm Subban