Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fluery moved into sole possession of second place in all-time wins by a goaltender with Monday night’s 5-0 shutout win over the Islanders.
Minnesota didn’t wait long to show the home crowd Monday’s performance was going to be different from Saturday’s 6-0 thrashing by Arizona. Mats Zuccarello scored his seventh goal of the season with a power-play goal just 2:11 into the game to give the Wild the early lead.
Minnesota ended a fairly even first frame up by the one goal, outshooting the Islanders 12-10. The Wild then enforced their will in the second period.
Once again scoring in the second minute, the 2:18 mark to be exact, Connor Dewar notched his seventh goal of the season to put the Wild up 2-0. Joel Eriksson Ek added a third Wild goal at the 13:36 mark. Minnesota kept the pressure on the New York net throughout the period, outshooting the Islanders 21-3 in the second frame.
Eriksson Ek extended the lead to four with a short-handed goal with just under four minutes left in the game, while Marcus Foligno added a fifth goal with 57 seconds left. Fleury made some big saves over the final period as he sealed win No. 552 with a shutout. He made 21 saves on his way to passing Patrick Roy.
Marc Andre Fleury thanking the post never gets old #mnwild pic.twitter.com/iOvYyUW1kM
— Alex Micheletti (@AlexMicheletti) January 16, 2024
Minnesota snapped a four-game losing streak with Monday night’s win.
Next up: Wild visit the 22-17-5 Tampa Bay Lightning Thursday, with puck drop set for 6 p.m.
