Marc-Andre Fleury electrifies crowd in dramatic Wild win over Penguins
On the night the Minnesota Wild celebrated Marc-Andre Fleury for reaching both 1,000 career games and 552 victories, the future Hall of Fame goalie made stood tall in net to the crowd chanting his name as he staved off a furious push by Pittsburgh to help Minnesota win 3-2.
Leading 3-2, the Penguins pulled the goalie with 2:15 to play and then had a 6-on-4 advantage for the last two minutes after Jonas Brodin was called for high-sticking. It was a chaotic finish that saw Fleury make numerous saves – he finished the game with 33 saves against his former team – to secure his 553rd career victory, which is second all time in NHL history.
The winning goal came with 10:26 left in the third period – and not without some drama – when Zach Bogosian's shot broke a stick and deflected right to Kirill Kaprizov who didn't miss an open net for his 20th goal of the season.
Pittsburgh reacted to the goal by challenging that moments before the goal the puck hit the netting for a "missed game stoppage" but the officials, after a lengthy review (7 minutes, 13 seconds), decided there wasn't enough evidence to overturn the play.
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— Bally Sports North (@BallySportsNOR) February 10, 2024
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THRILL#MNWILD | #NHL pic.twitter.com/WMPZf5ZTbc
Minnesota led 1-0 on Matt Boldy's power play goal in the first period and led 2-1 just over six minutes into the second period on Jonas Brodin's second goal of his injury-plagued season.
Sidney Crosby, who surprised Fleury with a special gift early in the day, beat his former teammate with his 28th goal of the season on a Pittsburgh power play just 61 seconds into the third period to tie the game 2-2.
Crosby, earlier in the game, got away with a penalty when he wrapped his arm and glove around Brock Faber's face and drove him into the boards.
https://t.co/hcyI4lsGCm pic.twitter.com/DjOvbrmuyw
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) February 10, 2024
The Wild have another injury concern after forward Marcus Foligno left the game after getting tripped up late in the second period. He started the third period playing on Minnesota's penalty kill but quickly left the ice and didn't return.
The win gets the Wild back to .500 at 23-23-5 (51 points) and just three points out of the second wild card in the Western Conference.
Up next: Wild at Vegas, Monday at 9 p.m. CT.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.