GAME DAY: Golden Knights face Canucks to begin back-to-back

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The Golden Knights begin a back-to-back in western Canada on Saturday when they play the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena.

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

This is the second meeting in six days between the clubs. The Knights (37-26-5, 79 points) easily defeated Vancouver 3-0 on March 3 as part of their current five-game win streak.

Nine players recorded a point for the Knights, and they outshot Vancouver 48-19, the second-most shots the Canucks have allowed this season.

“We know they’re going to be a lot better,” coach Gerard Gallant said. “They had a tough game against us in our building and they had a tough road trip, so we know it’s going to be a lot better team that’s playing us in Vancouver, for sure.”

Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury will start the front end of the back-to-back ahead of Sunday’s game at Calgary.

Fleury continues to lead the NHL in victories (33) and games started (57).

In his past four starts, he is 4-0 with a 0.50 goals-against average, .982 save percentage and two shutouts. Fleury has stopped 109 of the past 111 shots he’s faced.

Defenseman Shea Theodore tallied his 11th goal in Wednesday’s 2-1 victory over Calgary and has a four-game points streak. Center William Karlsson has four points (one goal, three assists) in his past three games.

The Knights are 10 points behind Calgary and nine back of second-place San Jose in the Pacific Division with 14 games remaining.

Vancouver (28-31-9, 65 points) has drifted nine points behind Minnesota for the second wild card in the Western Conference and is playing its third game in four days.

The Canucks ended a three-game losing skid with a 3-2 overtime win over Toronto on Wednesday and is coming off a 3-2 loss at Edmonton on Thursday. Vancouver has dropped seven of its past 10 games (3-5-2).

Center Elias Pettersson leads Vancouver with 57 points in 57 games and is three points shy of matching Pavel Bure and Ivan Hlinka for most points in a season by a rookie in franchise history.

Goaltender Jacob Markstrom (24-19-8, 2.70 GAA, .915 SP) was announced as the starter for the Canucks.

Speedy winger Jake Virtanen (rib fracture) was activated from injured reserve and will make his first appearance since Feb. 13.

“Definitely they’re going to be ready for us at home. We’ve got to be ready,” left wing Jonathan Marchessault said. “We’ve got to be sharp on the road. We have no show to give over there. We’ve got to go there and just play the right way like we’ve been doing the past five games.”

Golden Knights projected lineup

Forwards

Max Pacioretty-Paul Stastny-Mark Stone

Jonathan Marchessault-William Karlsson-Reilly Smith

Tomas Nosek-Cody Eakin-Alex Tuch

Ryan Carpenter-Pierre-Edouard Bellemare-Ryan Reaves

Defensemen

Nate Schmidt-Deryk Engelland

Brayden McNabb-Shea Theodore

Jon Merrill-Colin Miller

Goaltender

Marc-Andre Fleury