Fleury denied victory in historic game as Wild suffer weekend sweep

Fleury becomes fourth goalie in NHL history to reach 1,000 games.

Author:
Joe Nelson
Publish date:
Dec 31, 2023 5:27 PM EST

Victory in his 1,000th career game in the NHL was not to be for future Hall of Fame goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.

The Minnesota wild netminder allowed a pair of goals in the third period as the Winnipeg Jets won in St. Paul 3-2 for a weekend sweep of the Wild. The Jets beat Minnesota 4-2 Saturday afternoon in Canada.

Minnesota took a 2-1 lead on Frederic Gaudreau's power play goal 3:56 into the third period only to have Jake Middleton get whistled for hooking 44 seconds later and the Jets capitalized with Vladislav Namestnikov's game-tying goal just 12 seconds into the man advantage.

Fewer than three minutes later the Jets skated with a 6-on-5 advantage thanks to a delayed penalty on Minnesota and Dominic Toninato second attempt at a backhand off a juicy rebound flipped over Fleury and into the net for the deciding goal.

Fleury is the fourth goalie in NHL history to reach 1,000 games. The others are Martin Brodeur (1,266), Robert Luongo (1,044) and Patrick Roy (1,029). Fleury's 550 career wins is one short of tying Roy for second in league history.

Minnesota played without star winger Kirill Kaprizov, who missed the game with an upper-body injury after receiving multiple unpenalized cross-checks to his lower back during Saturday's game.

Harsh feelings leftover from Saturday's contest led to a fight immediately after the puck dropped Sunday, with Minnesota's Patrick Maroon throwing fists with Winnipeg's Adam Lowry.

Winnipeg is 6-0-2 in its last eight games and 10-1-2 in its past 13 games. Minnesota has now 11-5 since John Hynes replaced Dean Evason as head coach on Nov. 28.

Up next: Wild vs. Calgary, Tuesday at 7:10 p.m. CT.