Matt Boldy scored a pair of goals and Marcus Johansson tied the game late before Marco Rossi won it in overtime, but the star on the ice Saturday night in Columbus, Ohio was goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.
Fleury tied Patrick Roy at 551 career wins, the second most in NHL history behind the great Martin Brodeur (691) on a night that he stopped 25 of 28 shots and dazzled when the game was on the line in the third period and overtime.
The play of the game came seconds before Johansson tied the game 3-3 with 1:32 left in the third period. Fleury began skating to the Wild bench in an effort to give the Wild an extra attacker, but just as he neared the bench the Blue Jackets came up with the puck and Fleury changed course, sprinted back toward the goal before diving to prevent what would’ve been an open-net dagger.
𝗜𝗡𝗖𝗥𝗘𝗗𝗜𝗕𝗟𝗘!!! 𝗕𝗔𝗖𝗞 𝗧𝗢 𝗟𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗟!#mnwild #NHL pic.twitter.com/UfPEcgtMAX
— FanDuel Sports Network North (@FanDuelSN_NOR) January 7, 2024
Fleury wasn’t done. In OT, he robbed Yegor Chinakhov with a dynamite glove save.
“That was fun. Fun to catch that one up in the air,” Fleury told Kevin Gorg on Bally Sports North.
On a night where Marc-Andre Fleury tied Patrick Roy for second all-time in goalie wins with No. 551, he's still pulling off stuff like this.
Just incredible. 🌸 pic.twitter.com/GlsQOJAqvx
— NHL (@NHL) January 7, 2024
“Scary a bit, you know they scored that third goal late in the third but hats off to the guys, they battled hard to the end,” Fleury said. “We needed a win and finally it feels good to get one.”
The win snapped Minnesota’s four-game losing streak and gets them back to .500 at 17-17-4. They’re also slowly but surely getting healthier. Mats Zuccarello returned from his broken arm against Columbus and they could get Kirill Kaprizov back within the next ten days.
Kaprizov, Vinni Lettieri, Jared Spurgeon, Jonas Brodin and goalie Filip Gustavsson are all currently on injured reserve, and Marcus Foligno has missed the last two games with an injury.
Boldy, by the way, now has 12 goals since Nov. 28. Only six players in the NHL have more goals since then: Auston Matthews (16), Nathan MacKinnon (15), Artemi Panarin (14), Nikita Kucherov (13), Sam Reinhart (13) and Carter Verhaeghe (13).
Brock Faber has three assists in the game for his first career three-point night. His 17 assists this season rank first in the league among rookie defensemen and is second overall among all rookies.
Up next: Wild vs. Dallas Stars, Monday at 7:10 p.m. CT.
