Fleury deserved better for strong effort

NEW YORK — The Penguins spent a significant portion of the regular season touting goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury as their undisputed MVP.

Flower, as they call him, was their chariot to the postseason, their knight in goalie pads, the reason the sun rose and set over Pittsburgh each day.

Hyperbole aside, he probably deserved a better fate.

The Penguins exited the Stanley Cup playoffs Friday night after 2-1 overtime loss to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.

By any measure, it wasn’t Fleury’s fault. There was no one more heartbroken in the locker room.

“It just [stinks] to lose,” Fleury said. “I thought we hung in there, got some more shots than previous games. I thought it was going to come. Get a good bounce. Never came.”

Fleury made 34 saves, allowing an early power-play goal, and the backbreaker to Carl Hagelin at 10:52 of overtime, when Hagelin came around the corner of the goal and shot above his pad.

But Fleury was the reason the Penguins reached overtime, and arguably the playoffs.

And Friday he was onehalf of a remarkable goaltending duel with the Rangers Henrik-Lundqvist, whomade 37 saves.

“He was exceptional,” Brandon-Sutter said. “Flower really hung in for us and gave us a chance. … I think he deserves a lot of credit the way he played.”

Just five minutes in, Fleury zipped across the goal mouth to anticipate a onetimer from Mats Zuccarello off a cross-ice feed. In the second he turned away Derick Brassard off the rush and again in-close, blanked J.T. Miller and Chris Kreider on the doorstep.

By game’s end he stifled Martin St. Louis more than once. Rick Nash. Dan Boyle.

“He was off the charts in that first period,” defenseman Rob Scuderi said.“They scored the first goal and we were a little shaky the first few shifts and he came up huge for us.”

His counterpart, who by any measure also had a spectacular series, was impressed. “He played really well,” Lundqvist said. “He kept themin this one.”

Fleury finished the series with a 2.12 goals-against average and .927 save percentage.

“I thought both goaltenders were really good [Friday night] to be honest,” Penguins coach Mike Johnston said. “Flower was really good after that and I thought Lundqvist was really good at the other end. We had 27 shots the last two periods, fired everything we could at them and cameup short.”

Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said: “[Friday night] you definitely saw a great goaltending display at both ends.”