Minnesota Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury might be within the crease to face the Pittsburgh Penguins for the ultimate time of his Corridor of Fame profession when the groups meet Sunday afternoon in Saint Paul, Minn.
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Fleury, 40, spent the primary 13 seasons of his embellished profession with the Penguins. A 3-time Stanley Cup champion and 2020-21 Vezina Trophy recipient, Fleury has made it identified that he plans to retire on the finish of the season.
Fleury’s return to Pittsburgh went nicely on Oct. 29. He made 26 saves and Frederick Gaudreau and Kirill Kaprizov every recorded three-point performances to guide the Wild to a 5-3 victory over the Penguins.
Minnesota goaltender Filip Gustavsson has performed in twice as many video games as Fleury this season. The previous made his fourth straight begin and turned apart 17 pictures in a 3-1 highway setback to the Vancouver Canucks on Friday.
Defenseman Brock Faber scored the lone purpose for the Wild, who’ve misplaced 4 of their final six video games however maintain the primary wild-card spot within the Western Convention.
“That’s as frustrating as it gets, a game like that,” Faber stated of Friday’s loss. “I thought we outplayed them 80 percent of the game, maybe 75 percent of the game, probably doubled their grade-A chances. Those ones are as frustrating as they get for sure.”
Minnesota coach John Hynes was happy together with his group’s efficiency, simply not the consequence.
“I talked to the players after the game,” Hynes stated. “It’s a hard league to win in, but if we ice the game that we iced tonight, we’re going to give ourselves the best chance to win most nights.”
Out since late January following surgical procedure for a lower-body harm, Kaprizov has a club-best objectives for the Wild, whereas Matt Boldy leads in each assists and factors . Boldy arrange Faber’s power-play purpose within the third interval on Friday to spice up his complete to 6 factors within the final seven video games.
In the meantime, the Penguins are spiraling to the tune of getting 4 straight losses and eight of their final 9 video games general .
Their offense has been non-existent in the course of the first two legs of their three-game highway journey, save for Rickard Rakell’s team-leading twenty ninth purpose in a 4-1 setback on the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday.
Rakell, who scored twice within the first assembly with Minnesota, joined the remainder of his teammates in being held in test in a 4-0 highway loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday.
“We played well for the first two periods,” Rakell stated. “Then the third kind of got away from us a little bit. Early on in the first two periods, I thought we had some good scoring chances and some good opportunities to keep the game close. But in the third, we got away from it a little bit.”
Famous person captain Sidney Crosby noticed his four-game level streak halted versus Vegas. He arrange three objectives within the earlier assembly with Minnesota and leads the Penguins in assists and factors .
The Wild will play 10 of their subsequent 11 video games on their ice, with Sunday serving because the opener of a season-high seven-game homestand. The Penguins have struggled away from Pittsburgh , together with 4 straight losses getting into Sunday.
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