18 October 2023
MONTREAL — On a night the Wild wanted to belong to Marc-Andre Fleury, the future hall of fame goaltender was just about upstaged by his teammates.
Playing in what might be his last game in his native Quebec, Fleury added another win in his quest to catch, and pass, Patrick Roy for second all time for an NHL goaltender as Minnesota beat the Canadiens, 5-2, at Bell Centre on Tuesday.
When it was over, and Fleury had made 26 saves, he received a standing ovation from the partisan crowd, bringing him back out of the tunnel for a rare curtain call for a visiting player.
Joel Eriksson Ek scored two power-play goals, and Brandon Duhaime and Connor Dewar scored short-handed goals 26 seconds apart as the Wild improved to 2-1-0 despite playing a skater short in the wake of injuries suffered on this trip by Matt Boldy and Alex Goligoski.
Kirill Kaprizov also scored his first goal of the season, and added two assists, and Mats Zuccarello finished with three assists.
In his first start of the young season, Fleury made a few of his patented, acrobatic saves, most notably on a point-blank short-handed chance by Johnathan Kovacevic early in the third period and during a Canadiens’ power play. But he had a relatively quiet first two periods in his 545th career victory, pulling him within six of Roy’s 551.
Fleury also is now 14 games from playing 1,000. Fleury faced only 15 shots on goal until Montreal put together a wave of solid scoring chances in the third period. By then, however, the Wild had a 5-1 lead after Eriksson Ek’s second power-play goal.
Tanner Pearson and Alex Newhook scored goals, and Sam Montembeault made 30 saves for Montreal (1-1-1).
The Wild gave Montreal the first man advantage when Ryan Hartman was called for tripping Josh Anderson at 11:17 of the first period, but Duhaime finished a 2 on 1 by beating Montembeault near side at 9:19, and Dewar scored in a scrum at 9:25 for a 2-0 lead.
From then, the Wild were essentially off to the races.
After Hartman was called for tripping, the Wild had settled in for their first penalty kill when Duhaime and Jake Middleton forced a turnover along the left boards. With just one defender back, Duhaime held on to the puck and skated out of the zone, soon to be joined to his right by Eriksson Ek.
With a clear lane to the crease, Duhaime skated in close and fired a shot that beat Montembeault near side for a 1-0 lead at the 9:20 mark of the first period. Twenty-six seconds later, Dewar scored on a rush to make it 2-0.
It was the second time in as many seasons the Wild had scored short-handed goals on the same kill, and third time overall. Hartman and Sam Steel scored short-handed goals 20 seconds apart in a 5-3 victory over St. Louis on April 8. In 2000, the Wild’s inaugural season, Antti Laaksonen and Wes Walz scored short-handed goals in a 4-2 victory over Vancouver.
The Wild took a 3-0 lead early in the second period on a power-play goal. Juraj Slafkovsky was sent to the box for tripping, and on the ensuing Canadiens kill, Kaiden Guhle was called for slashing Marcus Johansson in the corner. Skating 5 on 3, Zuccarello found Eriksson Ek parked in the slot. Montembeault stopped the center’s first shot, but Eriksson Ek poked the rebound at 2:17.
Midway through the second period, the Wild were outshooting the Canadiens 20-5, but Montreal responded after Kaprizov had a shot from the blue line blocked and it started a 2 on 1 the other way. Skating in from the right side, Pearson fired a wrist shot from above the right circle that beat Fleury high on the near side to make it 3-1 at 9:47.
Kaprizov scored his first goal of the season late in the second period, one-timing a pass from Zuccarello into the near corner behind Montembeault at 17:22 to make it 4-1.
The Wild are scheduled to play host to the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night at Xcel Energy Center.