COLUMBUS, Ohio — Another week, another milestone for Marc-Andre Fleury.
Seven days after he appeared in his 1,000th game, joining only three other goaltenders in NHL history, Fleury notched his 551st career win, when Marco Rossi scored 3:05 into overtime of the Minnesota Wild‘s 4-3 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night.
Fleury, who stopped 25 shots including one that would have sealed a Blue Jackets win late in the third period, is tied with Patrick Roy for second all time among NHL goalies. Roy is among the three Hall of Famers who Fleury sits with in the 1,000-game club, along with Martin Brodeur and Roberto Luongo.
“It was good. It was a really hard-fought battle. I think, No. 1, for the team to be able to find a way to win the game was obviously important for us,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “And on top of it, [Fleury] worked to be able to tie the record. So, really happy for him, too.”
Should he get the start or enter in relief, Fleury will have a chance to take full ownership of No. 2 all time on the wins list Monday, when the Wild play host to the Dallas Stars.
“I was just happy to win tonight,” Fleury said. “It hasn’t been working out. We’ve been missing a few guys. We obviously need points in the standings. Catching Patrick is an honor, a guy I look up to growing up. In the moment I was happy to get the win here for the boys.”
Matt Boldy had two power-play goals, Marcus Johansson also scored and Brock Faber had two assists in the Wild win.
Cole Sillinger had three goals for his second career hat trick and Daniil Tarasov stopped 33 shots for Columbus, which has lost three of four — including two straight at home.
Sillinger put Columbus up 1-0 at 8:09 of the first period, tapping in Jake Bean‘s tape-to-tape pass from the left circle. Adam Boqvist earned the secondary assist after missing 13 games because of a shoulder strain suffered against Los Angeles on Dec. 5.
Boldy’s shot from the blue line, 5 seconds into a Wild power play, pulled the Wild even with 5:13 remaining in the period.
Columbus regained the lead with Sillinger’s second goal of the night, 17 seconds into the second period, off a slick backhand drop pass from Kirill Marchenko.
Boldy’s second power-play goal at 10:15 of the second pulled the Wild even again, marking his second-career game with multiple goals with a man advantage. Faber’s secondary assist marked his fourth multipoint game of the season and moved him into a tie for No. 2 among NHL rookies with 16.
Columbus had taken just one shot in the third period until Sillinger tipped Boqvist’s wrister from the blue line with 5:45 left for his third goal and seventh of the season.
Fleury was heading off for an extra skater but responded to a Columbus surge down the ice and made a diving stop with less than two minutes left to block a likely Blue Jackets insurance goal. Johansson then slipped the puck past Tarasov with 1:32 remaining to tie the score again.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
