PITTSBURGH — Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 26 photographs in what’s going to probably be his remaining sport within the Metal Metropolis because the Minnesota Wild defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-3 on Tuesday night time.
Frederick Gaudreau scored twice and Kirill Kaprizov added a purpose and two assists. Kaprizov tied the franchise document together with his sixth straight multipoint sport. Mats Zuccarello and Jakub Lauko additionally scored for Minnesota.
Fleury, who turns 40 subsequent month, indicated the 2024-25 season will probably be his final. Now in his twenty first NHL season, he performed his a centesimal sport with Minnesota on Tuesday, and saluted the followers afterward.
“It is perhaps arduous to imagine that is the final time. I’ve informed you I’ve gotten smooth,” Fleury joked in his postgame media availability. “However so appreciative, from the underside of my coronary heart, with what everyone’s finished for me through the years, and the help.”
He spent the primary 13 seasons of his profession with Pittsburgh and received three Stanley Cups: in 2009, 2016 and 2017.
“It is robust to place into phrases,” Fleury mentioned in his on-ice, postgame interview. “It is a second dwelling for me, and I’ve so many nice reminiscences, so many nice individuals within the locker room all through the years. And the followers, clearly, proper?”
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Pittsburgh traded as much as choose an 18-year-old Fleury No. 1 within the 2003 NHL draft and he responded by stabilizing the franchise throughout a tumultuous time in its historical past.
“I really feel very lucky,” he mentioned. “The years right here had been among the greatest years of my life. It is arduous to say bye.”
Fleury, nonetheless a fan favourite in Pittsburgh, acknowledged the group following a video tribute in the course of the first tv timeout because the beloved goaltender obtained a standing ovation and loud chants in an emotional second.
Rickard Rakell scored twice and Valtteri Puustinen obtained his first power-play purpose for Pittsburgh.
Sidney Crosby had three assists. Joel Blomqvist stopped 34 photographs for Pittsburgh, which misplaced its sixth straight sport.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
