PHILADELPHIA FLYERS VS VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS 01/02/2020 LIVE 10:00 PM ET

No one would blame Vegas coach Gerard Gallant if he shed a small tear on New Year's Eve as the calendar flipped forward to 2020. That's because December has been a very special month for the Golden Knights since they came into existence in 2018.

Vegas, which continues a seven-game homestand on Thursday night against the Philadelphia Flyers at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, improved to a remarkable 29-8-6 all-time in December games following Tuesday afternoon's 5-2 victory over Anaheim.

The win over the Ducks capped off a 9-4-2 month of December for the Golden Knights, who vaulted into first place in the Pacific Division and will bring a two-point lead over Arizona into the game against the Flyers.

"It's probably a coincidence, but I like the way it is," Gallant said. "We didn't have a great start to the season the last two years and we really picked it up in December. That's probably been our best month."

Vegas was a mediocre 13-11-4 heading into December.

"We're pretty healthy for the most part, besides Cody Eakin," Gallant said. "Overall, we're playing good hockey and we have a good team. When we play like this, we're a tough team to beat. We just have to keep doing it and get ready for every game."

The meeting with Philadelphia is the third game of a seven-game homestand for Vegas, which started with wins over Arizona and Anaheim. St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles and Columbus also visit before the Golden Knights hit the road for eight straight games.

The Flyers will be playing their fourth game of a six-game road trip that began with a 6-1 loss at San Jose on Saturday. Philadelphia also had a 2-1 overtime victory at Anaheim on Sunday before a 5-3 loss at Los Angeles on Tuesday night.

Philadelphia's normally reliable special teams struggled badly in the loss to the Kings, yielding three power-play goals and a short-handed goal.

Los Angeles jumped out to a 4-0 first-period lead and led 5-1 early in the third period after Martin Frk's power-play score before the Flyers responded with goals by Claude Giroux and Scott Laughton to make things respectable.

"A staple of our team so far this year has been our penalty kill, and tonight it wasn't very good," Flyers coach Alain Vigneault said. "That, combined with them scoring on our power play, took us out of the game early. Tried to battle back, but we have a couple of guys right now who don't seem to have a lot of energy on the ice."

Goaltender Brian Elliott was pulled by Vigneault after a first period in which he yielded four goals on 15 shots. Carter Hart finished up by stopping 13 of 14 shots.

"We came out hard for the last period and scored a couple goals and made it a hockey game, so I think we will take that momentum into the game Thursday (in Las Vegas)," Hart told NHL.com.

This is the teams' second meeting. The Flyers cruised to a 6-2 victory on Oct. 21 in Philadelphia after scoring four goals in the second period to build a 5-0 lead.