Think of the last meeting between the Golden Knights and Detroit Red Wings as if it never happened.
Though you can’t just throw away a 3-0 loss from six days ago, especially one that was winnable in the third period.
The Knights, by their admission, had no energy left by the time they got to Detroit to wrap up a four-game road trip Sunday. They hope to get back to a more respectful brand of hockey in the rematch with the Red Wings on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena.
“Not a lot of our game looked good (on Sunday),” coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Especially as the game went along, they got better.”
The Knights (40-20-8) would like to build off a 5-1 win Thursday against the Boston Bruins when they dominated for large stretches of the game.
They outshot Boston 32-19 and created a wide margin in scoring chances (29-19) and high-danger chances (13-7). Boston didn’t get on the board until the final two minutes.
Right wing Pavel Dorofeyev had his second hat trick of the season and reached the 30-goal mark in the win.
“Especially when you score goals, you get more confident,” center Tomas Hertl said of his linemate. “When it’s going your way scoring goals, you feel so much better. He works hard on his game every game.”
Detroit (32-30-6) is still very much alive in a crowded Eastern Conference playoff race despite falling to 2-8-0 in its past 10 games.
The Red Wings still have top-end talent in leading scorer Lucas Raymond (69 points), captain Dylan Larkin (60 points) and top goal scorer Alex DeBrincat (31 goals).
“They have a pretty good forecheck. They play fast, they have some skilled guys, and they’re really good on the power play,” Hertl said. “We just have to be ready.”
Goaltender Adin Hill will make his second straight start, coming off an 18-save performance Thursday. That should pave the way for Ilya Samsonov to start Sunday’s second leg of the back-to-back against the Tampa Bay Lightning.”
Projected lineup
Ivan Barbashev — Jack Eichel — Mark Stone
Brandon Saad — Tomas Hertl — Pavel Dorofeyev
Brett Howden — William Karlsson — Reilly Smith
Tanner Pearson — Nicolas Roy — Keegan Kolesar
Nic Hague — Alex Pietrangelo
Noah Hanifin — Zach Whitecloud
Brayden McNabb — Kaedan Korczak
Adin Hill
This is a developing story. Check back later for updates.
Contact Danny Webster at [email protected]. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.
Up next
Who: Red Wings at Golden Knights
When: 5 p.m. Saturday
Where: T-Mobile Arena
TV/radio: ABC; KKGK (1340 AM, 98.9 FM)
Line: Knights -220; total 6
