Pittsburgh versus Minnesota (Crosby, Malkin vs Fleury)
Penguins 3 – Wild 1 (en) St. Paul, Minn. Literally, goaltending is the last word on scoring, and last night two goaltenders provided an entertaining game as well as being able to watch three powerful HOF players perform superbly in the twilight of their NHL careers.
Minnesota Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury is a three-time Stanley Cup Champion who also won the Jennings and Vezina Trophies in one season, and for the last time faced his former Cup teammates who both scored on him last night.
Then there was the unknown factor of goaltender Tristan Jarry back up from the AHL and was the main reason the Wild could only score once during the game, and it was a 4 on 1 odd-man rush aided by a blatant non-call that spoiled Goaltender Jarry’s shutout bid.
It is also worth noting that Goaltender Jarry collected an assist on Center Crosby’s empty net goal giving him 11 total assists in his NHL (AHL 8A) career.
Additionally, I appreciate how the Minnesota Wild have created a uniform kit that resembles the color scheme of the Minnesota North Stars, with the state of Minnesota Captain and Alternate patches, although the original North Stars franchise relocated to Texas, this is still a cool nod to Minnesota’s hockey history.
Buffalo Winter 