*Photo from The Hockey News*
It was his night, and he got to go home happy. Jonas Brodin had a goal and an assist, Marc-Andre Fleury came up big in net, and the Minnesota Wild defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins with a 3-2 victory on Friday night in Saint Paul.
The Wild won their second straight game and 6th in their last 10 by beating the Penguins, although they're still stuck in 6th place in the Central Division with an even 23-23-5 record. 3 skaters for the Wild recorded a goal and an assist while 6 registered at least one point.
Before the game, Fleury, who recently hit 1,000 games played, was honored for the achievement. The Penguins are the team Fleury has spent the most time with, playing 13 years with them after being taken by the team first overall in the 2003 draft. All 3 of his Stanley Cup titles came with the Penguins.
Minnesota head coach John Hynes said "Marc was great. A great evening. The way he performed. I told the team after the game, just his performance and his competitiveness was great to see. It was a big difference in the game. Then the way the players play in front of him. It’s fun to be involved in that and see how much he battles and how much he means to the team, and you can see his impact he has the group, how they battle and how bad they want to win for him."
The only goal of the first period came from Matt Boldy, scoring on the power play to give the Wild a 1-0 lead on his 17th goal of the season. Reilly Smith got the Penguins on the board 2:54 into the second period, making it a 1-1 game. Boldy and Joel Eriksson Ek assisted on Brodin's goal at the 6:12 mark of the second to make it 2-1 Wild.
Early in the 3rd period, the Penguins struck again to tie the game. Sidney Crosby found the back of the net 25 seconds in to tie the game 2-2 with help from Jake Guentzel and Erik Karlsson. At the 9:34 mark of the 3rd, Kirill Kaprizov scored the eventual game winning goal for the Wild, putting them ahead 3-2.
On his big night, Fleury came up big during the game for the Wild. He stopped 34 of the 36 shots he was tested with by his old team in Pittsburgh, good for a .944 save percentage. His record improves to 9-9-3 in 21 starts with the win.
Fleury said of the celebration for him that "I'm happy it's over. I was a little nervous for it. I feel like I’ve gotten softer and softer with the years and then seeing my kids on the ice and on the jumbotron talking too. Old teammates. I don’t know, it gets me. But I think it was early in game they got the power play just to move around a little bit. So that was good. Very grateful for the Wild organization and Penguins also for making this day so special for my family."
Getting the start for the Penguins on the other side of the ice was Alex Nedeljkovic, who got the loss to drop to 8-4-3 in 15 starts. Nedeljkovic turned aside 27 out of the 30 shots on goal the Wild had, giving him an even .900 save percentage.
The Penguins play the second end of a back to back when they take on the Minnesota Wild on Saturday, with Tristan Jarry set to start in goal. Filip Gustavsson is the projected starter for the Wild against the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday night.
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