Golden Knights to start Oscar Dansk in net against Flyers

PHILADELPHIA — Goaltender Oscar Dansk will make his season debut Monday when the Golden Knights meet the Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center.

Opening faceoff is 4 p.m. Pacific time, and the game will be televised on AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain.

The Knights (6-3-0, 12 points) have won two straight and four out of their past five games following Saturday’s 3-0 shutout over Pittsburgh. It was the 100th regular-season win in franchise history.

This is the first game of a back-to-back for the Knights, who play at Chicago on Tuesday.

Dansk hasn’t appeared in an NHL game since Oct. 30, 2017, when he was injured during a game at the New York Islanders. He is 3-0 with a 1.78 goals-against average and a .946 save percentage in four career appearances.

Dansk made 36 stops against Los Angeles to win his lone start in the preseason.

“Fleury’s played too many games,” coach Gerard Gallant said. “I mean, he’s playing great, but you can’t keep going back and forth to him.”

Right wing Mark Stone leads the Knights with 12 points (six goals, six assists) and carries a five-game points streak.

The Knights own the league’s top penalty-killing unit at 94.3 percent and have not allowed a power-play goal in four road games.

“We want to make this a good road trip,” right wing Ryan Reaves said. “I think we’ve got to try and stay out of the (penalty) box and roll a little bit more 5-on-5, draw some more of our own penalties. We need a solid game here.”

The Flyers (2-3-1, 5 points) are winless in their past four games, including a 4-1 home loss to Dallas on Saturday. Brian Elliott is slated to start in goal.

Philadelphia is averaging a league-low 2.5 goals per game, but is holding teams to an average of 26 shots per game, which ranks first. Its plus-10.2 shot differential is the best in the league.

“(Philadelphia is) real dangerous because you know the puck’s going to start going in for them,” Gallant said. “They’ve got a good hockey team. They’ve got good players. … Hopefully they’ll start scoring after we leave. But hopefully not tonight.”

Travis Konecny leads the team with eight points (three goals, five assists).

The Flyers recalled forwards Joel Farabee and Mikhail Vorobyev from the American Hockey League on Sunday in hopes of finding more offense. Farabee, Philadelphia’s first-round pick (No. 14 overall) in 2018, will make his NHL debut.

Claude Giroux (69.3 percent) and Sean Couturier (67.8 percent) rank first and second in the league in faceoffs, respectively, among all players who have taken 80 or more draws. The Flyers are 56.7 percent on faceoffs as a team, which leads the league.

Golden Knights projected lineup

Forwards

Jonathan Marchessault-William Karlsson-Reilly Smith

Max Pacioretty-Paul Stastny-Mark Stone

Brandon Pirri-Cody Eakin-Cody Glass

William Carrier-Tomas Nosek-Ryan Reaves

Defensemen

Brayden McNabb-Shea Theodore

Jon Merrill-Nick Holden

Jake Bischoff-Deryk Engelland

Goaltender

Oscar Dansk