DALLAS – Out of the nook of his eye, Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury noticed teammate Frederick Gaudreau.
As an alternative of going for a line change because the puck rolled into Wild territory, Gaudreau hung again behind the play — what ended up being the right location to simply accept a move from Fleury.
“I assume it was a French sense,” Fleury mentioned.
After the netminder aggressively and astutely left his crease to whack away a throw by the Stars that clipped Kevin Fiala’s skate into the zone, Fleury arrange Gaudreau for an equally spectacular end: a rising shot previous a pair of Dallas gamers that sealed a 3-2 extra time win for the Wild on Thursday in entrance of 18,110 at American Airways Middle, giving the group its third straight victory.
This end result stored the Wild in second place within the Central Division with 9 video games left within the common season, its 98 factors tied with the Blues. However the Wild is forward for now as a result of it has performed one fewer recreation.
“It occurs quick, however I form of sensed that [Fleury] was wanting up and his complete physique was form of wanting like he was coming to me,” Gaudreau mentioned. “So I made a decision to take the prospect and keep there.”
Gaudreau’s first profession extra time objective 1 minute, 40 seconds into the additional session capped a three-point effort, which matched his profession excessive. Fiala additionally had three factors after scoring twice on feeds from Gaudreau, and Fleury made 34 saves to associate with his second help of the season and first with the Wild to develop into the eleventh goalie in franchise historical past to tally one.
Fleury has 20 helpers in his profession, which is tied for first amongst lively goalies. The 37-year-old additionally moved into sixth place for many saves in NHL historical past (24,280) and minutes performed (54,087).
BOXSCORE: Wild 3, Dallas 2 (OT)
“His puck dealing with is elite,” coach Dean Evason mentioned, “and he made some nice choices and clearly an ideal move on the finish.”
Earlier than the Quebec natives related in extra time, the Stars rallied twice after falling behind early.
Fiala opened the scoring 2:14 into the primary interval after he accepted a Gaudreau move whereas crashing the online and deked the puck round Dallas goalie Scott Wedgewood.
“Nice fingers,” Evason mentioned of Gaudreau, who has set profession bests in targets (12), assists (24) and factors (36). “Good pace. Good playmaker.”
The objective was the Wild’s 264th of the season, eclipsing the earlier franchise document of 263.
That lead held till the second interval, when the Stars capitalized on their first energy play as Jason Robertson backhanded in his personal rebound at 6:02.
Dallas blanked on its subsequent two energy performs, whereas the Wild did not obtain any. However the group did convert shorthanded.
Gaudreau threaded a move to Fiala by two Stars gamers and Fiala skated in for a breakaway that he despatched over Wedgewood 11:36 into the second interval for the Wild’s second shorthanded objective of the season and the primary of Fiala’s profession. Wedgewood completed with 24 saves.
Not solely is Fiala third in targets on the Wild, behind solely Ryan Hartman (29) and Kirill Kaprizov (42), however he is additionally third in scoring with 68 factors. He has seven of these factors, together with 5 targets, throughout a four-game level streak.
“Kevin, you give him a move near the goalie and he can shake the goalie up with so many strikes and he did that tonight,” Gaudreau mentioned. “It was simply enjoyable to present him the puck and see what he might do after.”
As earlier than, Dallas responded and once more Robertson was behind the comeback — this time scoring 55 seconds into the third interval on a shot that squeaked by Fleury.
“I wasn’t blissful about it,” Fleury mentioned.
However the goalie was hermetic the remainder of the way in which earlier than orchestrating the game-winning play to enhance to 5-1 since a March 21 commerce from Chicago whereas debuting new gear after rolling out a Wild-themed masks on Sunday.
“Simply attempt to put it behind,” mentioned Fleury, who is simply the second Wild goalie to help on an extra time objective. “Take a deep breath [and] attempt to calm down as a result of I do know with this group, they’re simply gonna preserve the rating shut and our likelihood of profitable is fairly good.”
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