TEMPE, ARIZ. – Marc-Andre Fleury has made it clear he wants to keep playing for the Wild, and that decision might help keep the team’s fading playoff hopes alive.
The Wild needed 23 saves by Fleury and a third-period comeback to defeat the struggling Coyotes 5-2 on Thursday at Mullett Arena and pick up a much-needed two points in the standings.
After blowing their lead in seven seconds to allow the fastest two goals in team history, Zach Bogosian and Joel Eriksson Ek scored to ignite a Wild rally before Brock Faber and Connor Dewar applied the finishing touches with empty-netters 45 seconds apart. Mats Zuccarello factored in three goals for a three-point return to action after sitting out last game due to personal reasons.
As for Fleury, this performance continued his second-half steadiness.
Since Jan. 13, Fleury is 6-2 in 10 appearances, which included replacing Filip Gustavsson in a loss and exiting a game early due to injury. Only once in his last eight starts has Fleury surrendered more than two goals.
Before puck drop, the Wild shook up the lineup in front of their net by trading Brandon Duhaime to division rival Colorado, which will host the Wild Friday when this two-game road trip concludes.
Jake Middleton was missing because of an upper-body injury.
A veteran netminder with a Hall-of-Fame resume that includes three Stanley Cups and a Vezina Trophy as the league’s top goalie, Fleury could have been an upgrade to a contender looking to add experience to its crease.
But Fleury said in the lead-up to Friday’s NHL trade deadline that he couldn’t see himself asking for a trade and that he wouldn’t want to go elsewhere.
Considering how he’s been playing, that’s good news for the Wild as they try to claw back into the Western Conference wild-card race.
Fleury was perfect through two periods against Arizona, and fans chanted his name after he stopped a 20th shot late in the second to preserve a 1-0 advantage for the Wild.
After they had a goal disallowed earlier in the period because the puck went into the Coyotes net off Matt Boldy’s hand, the Wild scored for good at 1 minute, 51 seconds when Kirill Kaprizov jammed in the puck on the power play (1-for-2) for his team-leading 30th goal and fourth in two games.
Kaprizov is only the third Wild player with three consecutive 30-goal seasons; Marian Gaborik and Brian Rolston are the others.
The Wild had another shot from Jake Lucchini sail in at 6:59, but Arizona challenged the goal and video review determined Luchhini was off-side before he scored.
That slim edge held until the third period when the Coyotes had an early turnaround.
With Marco Rossi in the penalty box for tripping, Clayton Keller capitalized for Arizona at 1:21 on the power play (1-for-3).
On the next shift, Michael Carcone cruised into Wild territory and wired a puck off the post and behind Fleury to give the Coyotes a pair of goals in only seven seconds; that’s one second faster than the Predators’ two-goal, eight-second tear against the Wild last Thursday that set a new franchise record (for only a week).
But 32 seconds later, the Wild reset when Bogosian pinched to bury a Ryan Hartman pass; Arizona again challenged the play, this time to check for goaltender interference, but the goal counted. Hartman had two assists in total.
Then at 7:16, Eriksson Ek deposited a Coyotes turnover collected by Zuccarello behind goalie Karel Vejmelka (23 saves) to help the Wild avoid what would have been a crushing blow to their playoff bid.
Faber drained an empty-net goal at 18:48 to go before Dewar did the same with 27 seconds left.