Marc-Andre Fleury had not received much help lately as he continued his climb up the record books, with the Vegas Golden Knights providing 10 goals of support in his previous seven starts.
With Vegas finally unleashing the offense in front of their veteran goaltender, Fleury on Wednesday made 21 saves to earn his 485th win and break a tie with Ed Belfour for fourth place in NHL history, as the Golden Knights beat the Los Angeles Kings 6-2.
Max Pacioretty and Tomas Nosek each had a goal and two assists for the Golden Knights, who have won four straight. Alex Tuch, Chandler Stephenson, Mark Stone and Alex Pietrangelo also scored, and Vegas went 6-2-0 in the eight-game season series against Los Angeles.
Photo: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY
“It’s fun to see them [score],” Fleury said. “I see the game is more relaxed when we get all those goals, but it’s nice. I knew it was gonna come at some point.”
Picking up where they left off in a 4-2 win over the Kings on Monday, the Golden Knights continued to highlight their speed and transition play as they went up 2-0 11 minutes, 4 seconds into the game.
When Jonathan Quick misplayed Pacioretty’s bouncing dump in from outside the blue line to put the Golden Knights up 3-1 late in the first period, resulting in the Kings’ own accomplished goalie being replaced after allowing three goals on eight shots, it was clear it would be Fleury’s night to make history.
“Kind of one of those things where it almost felt like every other game we were playing well, and it just happened to fall [poorly] in the games that Flower played,” Pacioretty said. “But in that short amount of time, he still played well and was able to help us win. So, yeah, it was nice to get him some runs for.”
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