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.