Marc-Andre Fleury has made it clear that he
will retire at the end of this season. Barring an unlikely trade, Fleury played
his last game at SAP Center on Saturday night and he stuck it to the Sharks one
last time. The Minnesota Wild netminder made 36 saves to beat the Sharks 3-1,
sending the Sharks to their 32nd loss in 45 games this season. San Jose made a
game of it, trailing by a lone goal for most of the 3rd period until Minnesota
scored what was unofficially an empty-net goal.
Sharks fans had their
chance to say goodbye to Fleury, but it's unlikely that most will miss the
Sharks nemesis. He has a .946 save percentage in 13 games at SAP Center, which
is higher than games against the Sharks in his own barn.
He was in
prime form on Saturday night, snuffing out big runs by the Sharks and calmly
preserving a lead his team would not relinquish.
Minnesota would pot the only goal of the opening
period 5:51 in after the Wild moved the puck up ice. Mats Zuccarello entered
the Sharks zone along the left wing boards, then flipped the puck to Marco
Rossi on the off wing. William Eklund elected to try and block Zuccarello's
pass by diving at it, but in doing so he left Rossi unattended. The Wild
forward gathered Zuccarello's feed before lifting a backhand chance over
Yaroslav Askarov's left shoulder for this 16th goal of the season.
The
Sharks would out-shoot the Wild 16-6 in the opening period, but Fleury turned
in your run of the mill Fleury-esque performance to deny San Jose.
Even a with the man advantage following a Jake Middleton delay of game penalty,
the Sharks were unable to solve the Wild netminder.
A Will Smith
turnover early in the 2nd period ended up in the sharks net after Matt Boldy
carried a Zuccarello feed into the Sharks zone, then used Henry Thrun to screen
a shot that slipped past Askarov for his 16th goal of the season.
San
Jose finally solved Fleury with 2:30 remaining in the middle frame. Macklin
Celebrini drove up the right side before pumping a shot on goal. Fleury kicked
Celebrini's chance back out to the slot where William Eklund was Johnny on the
spot for the put back chance. Eklund would not miss, giving him his 9th goal of
the season.
The game turned into a wide open shootout in the 3rd
period. That opened up the ice for Celebrini to flash his skills, including his
skating which mesmerized the Wild defense on more than one occasion.
San Jose threw 8 more shots at Fleury in the period, but it was his night.
San Jose tried to pull Askarov for an extra attacker late in the game,
but they coughed the puck up before their goaltender could reach the bench.
Zuccarello capped his big night with a goal that was technically not an
empty-net tally because Askarov never reached the bench.
Game
Notes: * Nico Sturm and Carl Grundstrom came off the injured
reserve and played in Saturday night's contest. Their roster spots became
available after San Jose moved Nikolai Kovalenko and Klim Kostin on to the
injured reserve.
* Minneosta played without their all-world forward
Kirill Kaprizov, who is on the shelf with an injury.
* The Sharks
completed the game without taking a penalty.
* Will Smith had a pair
of suspect turnovers that earned him a benching in the 3rd period.
*
The game was the 6th sellout of the season for San Jose. They are ranked 2nd to
last in average attendance this season, behind only Utah whose arena seats
6,300 fewer fans than SAP Center.