Fleury fends off Penguins
and Fleury enjoyed a warm embrace. Fleury jokingly shot a puck at Evgeni Malkin in warmup. The ovation for Fleury in pregame introductions was absolutely nuts.
Despite solid work in his first game following a sixgame absence, Murray stopped 24 of 26 but lost to his mentor.
The marquee sequence for Fleury unfolded about 13½ minutes into the second period. Sidney Crosby slid a pass back between his legs to Conor Sheary. Sheary lost a handle on the puck but still somehow nudged it over to Dumoulin.
After waiting probably a beat longer than he would’ve liked, Dumoulin shot only to have Fleury lunging from his left to right, stopping Dumoulin much like he did Nicklas Lidstrom in the 2009 Stanley Cup final.
Fleury stopped Olli Maatta on a solid chance early in the third, set up by Crosby, and got some help from the crossbar whenever Crosby popped out from behind the net a short time later.
How much the Penguins generated came in spurts. They did themselves in with a costly penalty on Chad Ruhwedelwith 2:02 to go.
Rutherford was critical of his team Wednesday following a 2-3-0 homestand that the general manager thought could’ve been a lot better. He didn’t say that a trade was coming, per se. But given the team’s play of late, if it didn’t improve, Rutherford indicated that a shakeup was the route he would probably take.
It’s doubtful this performance did much to change Rutherford’s mind.
The Penguins fell behind early and didn’t record their 10th shot on goal until the 12:14 mark of the second period.
The loss dropped the Penguins to 16-14-3, while the Golden Knights (20-9-2) won for the 20th time. They’re now 1-5-3 in their past nine regular-season road games against Western Conference opponents and lost to an expansion team in their first meeting for just the second time since 1991.
It didn’t take long for the Golden Knights to jump out to a 1-0 lead, and it was a former Penguin who did the damage.
Vegas forward James Neal picked up his 15th goal of the season when he potted a rebound from a tough angle at 1:41 of the first period.
Fleury had to make several difficult stops early. Jake Guentzel cut in past Merrill for a chance. Crosby backhanded another. Fleury made a diving stop on Malkin and ventured out to the top of the circles to poke the puck away from Sheary.
An unlikely combination helped the Penguins tie the game at 1.
Riley Sheahan started the sequence by picking off a Vegas outlet attempt. Carl Hagelin smartly spun away from Knights defenseman Shea Theodore in front and tossed a cross-slot pass to Ian Cole.
From a spot similar to where Neal scored from, Cole finished top shelf for his second of the season at 12:04.
The secondary assist gave Sheahan points in nine of his past 14 (three goals, nine points total).