PITTSBURGH – In a different rink with another team, the sights and sounds would have been peculiar.
Wild beat Penguins 5-3 as Marc-Andre Fleury gets sendoff from Pittsburgh
In his 100th game with the Wild, Marc-Andre Fleury, who will retire after the season, made 26 saves against the team with which he won three Stanley Cups.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
October 30, 2024 at 6:38AM
Home fans lined the away side of the ice for warmups, the boards plastered with homemade signs for a visiting player who was cheered enthusiastically when he was shown on the video board.
But in Pittsburgh where Marc-Andre Fleury is still beloved by the fan base, the reception for the Wild goaltender wasn’t surprising at all.
“It’s just normal for us,” Penguins alternate captain Kris Letang said. “He made a big difference in this organization. People appreciate that, and they’ll remember that forever.”
Fleury’s return to Pittsburgh was the first farewell of his last season before retirement, a thoughtful ode by the Penguins to their one-time franchise goalie that the Wild commemorated for Fleury with a 5-3 rally on Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena to improve to 6-1-2.
“It’s very hard to believe that’s the last time,” said an emotional Fleury, who was getting choked up after he was named the game’s first star and went for a curtain call while he was serenaded with cheers and stick taps. “Told you I was getting soft. Yeah, hard to believe, but so appreciative from the bottom of my heart, for everybody from over the years.”
Fleury picked up his second win of the season, making 26 saves in his 100th game with the Wild and 1,028th in the NHL; he’s one behind Patrick Roy for third all-time.
Frederick Gaudreau scored twice, including on a breakaway, and Kirill Kaprizov tallied three points to put the finishing touches on the Wild’s comeback after they sank into a two-goal hole for a second straight game.
“There was some extra motivation to get [Fleury] the win,” Mats Zuccarello said.
Pittsburgh’s Valtteri Puustinen capitalized on the second of two straight power plays, scoring from the right circle 11 minutes, 36 seconds into the first period before Rickard Rakell turned into a shot in the slot at 15:31.
But the Wild climbed back to equilibrium before the period ended.
Jakub Lauko sneaked the puck between the post and Penguins goalie Joel Blomqvist (34 saves) with 2:57 left in the first and then 55 seconds later, Gaudreau flipped a Pittsburgh turnover over Blomqvist for his first goal of the season.
Only 1:38 into the second period and on his very next shift after his goal, Gaudreau polished off a breakaway set up by Kaprizov for his fourth career two-goal game.
“What a great game for Freddy,” coach John Hynes said. “I think his game’s really been coming.”
Kaprizov was also the architect of the Wild’s next goal with 37 seconds to go in the second, the Wild’s leading scorer finding Zuccarello for a redirect as Zuccarello crashed the net for a much-needed reset for the Wild.
Minutes earlier, the Penguins upped the pressure after denying the second of five Wild power plays that came after Brock Faber’s first NHL fight.
Faber got tied up along the boards with Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby, who assisted on every Penguins goal, and after the two’s shoving match ended with Crosby peeling away, Crosby’s teammate Jack St. Ivany came off the bench and fought Faber. St. Ivany received an extra roughing penalty on the play.
“[Crosby’s] a competitor, and he’s been one of the best players, if not the best, for a long time,” said Faber, who explained Crosby thought Faber slew-footed him but Faber disagreed. “That’s what happens when you go after guys like that. I didn’t mean to go after him. I don’t think he meant to come after me, but that was that. I obviously had to fight after that.”
Zuccarello’s goal turned into the game-winner after a Rakell deflection 3:34 into the third period.
But the Wild held off Pittsburgh the rest of the way, with Kaprizov dumping the puck into an empty net with 19 seconds remaining, to finish their season-long stretch of seven road games in a row with 11 out of a possible 14 points.
“Really proud of the effort,” Hynes said. “After a long road trip, coming in here, you know it’s going to be a battle.”
This was Kaprizov’s sixth consecutive game with multiple points, a career high that also tied Zuccarello for the franchise record, and he leads the league with seven multi-point performances overall to go along with 18 points in nine games.
“He’s really feeling it,” Hynes said. “He’s on it. He’s playing the game the right way. He’s executing when he needs to execute. It’s fun to see.”
The Wild also concluded their trip with captain Jared Spurgeon back in action.
The defenseman had been out since the second game of the season with a lower-body injury related to the hip and back surgeries he had earlier this year; Dameon Hunt went back to the minors.
“Hopefully, this is the last of it, but never really know,” said Spurgeon, who traced the issue back to the last preseason game. “So, we’re doing a good job of keeping the treatment going.”
But the whole day was a tribute to Fleury.
From the pregame prank by Fleury’s former teammate Max Talbot, who took a page out of Fleury’s playbook by taping Fleury’s gear together, to the in-game standing ovation and the Fleury-themed warmup pucks in between, the three-time Stanley Cup champion with the Penguins and second-winningest goalie in NHL history was celebrated as such.
“I love this guy,” Gaudreau said. “I’ve always said this, but I feel so grateful to have had the very, very big privilege to be his teammate. I’ve been told by players before that he was the best teammate ever, and it’s been proven to me every single day that we showed up to the rink together.
“You feel happy for a guy like that. There’s just so much emotion because of the history here, the person he is, everything really. So, I’m happy for him.”
While he’d rather avoid the hoopla, Fleury thought he might soak up the uniqueness of the game, and the 18,195 in attendance applauded him after a video tribute during a timeout in the first period.
“I didn’t want to watch or look,” said Fleury, who was embraced by Crosby and Letang after the game, the two telling him congratulations and to enjoy the moment. “My first time back here, I looked, and I had watery eyes and then I couldn’t see. So, I didn’t want to look. I just told the ref, ‘Drop the puck. Let’s go.’ ”
The future Hall of Famer rewarded them with a throwback effort late in the second period, Fleury weathering a push from the Penguins by sprawling on his back sans stick to cover up a puck that bounced off the post.
In typical Fleury fashion, he thanked his net afterward — “Little kiss to the post for old time’s sake,” he said — while a “Fleury” chant broke out, a preview of the recognition he’d get after the game when he saluted the Pittsburgh crowd before exiting the ice.
“You feel like every time the moment’s on him or he’s getting honored before a game or whatever it is, I feel like he rises to the occasion,” Faber said. “The moment’s never too big for him.
“You just know he’s going to be there in the biggest moments, and that’s exactly how he was again, and just to be able to share that with him was incredible.”
After letting 135-footer bounce in early, Fleury steadied himself in 5-3 victory.
