Wild and goalie Marc-Andre Fleury persevere for 3-1 victory over San Jose

Sarah McLellan, Star Tribune on Jan 12, 2025

Published in Hockey

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SAN JOSE, Calif. – How did the Minnesota Wild combat the speed, skill and spunk of the much younger San Jose Sharks?

By having their 40-year-old goalie school the kids.

In the age-old battle of youth vs. experience, future Hall of Famer Marc-Andre Fleury prevailed to backstop the Wild to a 3-1 victory Saturday night at SAP Center for their fifth win in their past six games.

Fleury made 36 saves, a season high, in his 570th career victory and third in a row during his farewell season, as the Wild reset from a 6-1 turndown by the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday with their NHL-leading 16th road win.

Marco Rossi and Matt Boldy scored before an empty-netter from Mats Zuccarello with 1 minute, 17 seconds to go for his third point of the night, but this outcome wasn’t possible without Fleury.

He fended off more shots in the first period (16) than he did playing more than half the game in relief of Filip Gustavsson last Tuesday during the 6-4 rally against the St. Louis Blues when Fleury went a perfect 15-for-15.

The Wild exited the first ahead 1-0 after Rossi skated into a head-man pass from Zuccarello and lifted a top-shelf backhander by Sharks goalie Yaroslav Askarov at 5:51.

Zuccarello also set up the next goal, handing off to Boldy in the neutral zone before Boldy skated into San Jose territory and handcuffed Askarov with a wrister 4:34 into the second for his second point. Askarov finished with 18 saves.

That was only the Wild’s ninth shot — the Sharks had 19 — and San Jose continued to dominate the puck the rest of the period while staying out of the penalty box; the Wild didn’t receive a power play for the second time in three games, and the Sharks went 0-for-2.

Fleury rattled off 28 consecutive saves, including many off his right pad and one impressive slide to deny San Jose rookie Macklin Celebrini, before the Sharks finally connected: With 2:30 left in the second, Fleury stopped Celebrini, but William Eklund buried the rebound.

This ended Fleury’s shutout streak at 87:23; the last goal he’d given up was early in the third period of the Wild’s 4-3 shootout win over the Capitals on Jan.2.

The 18-year-old Celebrini remained a handful, racking up a game-high six shots, and although San Jose played the previous night at Utah, the Sharks were much more upbeat than a Wild lineup that was still missing five regulars.

Kirill Kaprizov, who sat out his eighth straight game with a lower-body issue, continues to skate, while Jonas Brodin (lower body) and Brock Faber (upper body) are getting treatment for their injuries. Jakub Lauko, whose recovery from a lower-body ailment has stagnated, has also been skating, and captain Jared Spurgeon (lower body) is working out off the ice.

But the Wild were sharpest at the position that mattered most against San Jose, with Fleury actually the freshest player the Wild had in action: He almost didn’t back up Thursday’s game because he was sick but showed no ill effects in his return to the crease.