ST. PAUL – Bodies flying everywhere, Marc-Andre Fleury sprawling from post to post trying to keep his team in it with a minute left in the third up a goal, the Wild held onto a one-goal lead thanks to three saves by Fleury in the last minute and six blocked shots.
“Yeah, I think when you saw the guys at the end diving in front. I think Brandon would have blocked that with his face if he needed to,” Matt Boldy said on the final minute of play. “Obviously a lot of respect there. We weren’t losing that one.”
Not only did the Wild honor Fleury before the game with 1,000 flowers shaped into a 1,000 sign for playing in 1,000 games and a 552 sign for winning 552 games which is second all-time in the NHL in wins, but Fleury looked like the former 20-year-old goaltender making one acrobatic save after another keeping his team in it.
“The end of the game was vintage him,” Wild head coach John Hynes said on Fleury’s final minute in the net. “When you look at the highlights even in his ceremony and take that last minute and a half, you could just put those clips on the video and it looks the same.”