Max Comtois, who grew up idolizing Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, ended up playing spoiler against his hero Thursday night. Comtois scored the only goal in the third period, leading the Anaheim Ducks to a 1-0 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights.
Rickard Rakell set up the game-winner by retrieving the puck behind the net and finding Comtois, who fired a quick one-timer past Fleury at 12:18 of the third period.
“The goalies are great in this league,” Comtois said. “As long as I shoot quickly, I can beat them.”
It marked Anaheim’s first win over Vegas this season and the first time the Golden Knights have lost 1-0 at home. The Golden Knights had been held under four goals at home only once previously this season, in a 2-1 overtime win against Anaheim on Jan. 16.
“We’ve had some games earlier this season where we backed off defensively when we had a lead,” Ducks coach Dallas Eakins said. “Tonight, we kept pressing forward, and our guys did a good job of that.”
John Gibson stopped 21 shots to record his 22nd career shutout, moving him into third place on Anaheim’s all-time shutouts list, passing Jonas Hiller. Gibson made several crucial saves late in the game as Vegas pulled Fleury for an extra skater.
“I thought we protected him well for the first two periods,” Eakins said. “At the end, when it was 6-on-5, the puck bounced everywhere in our crease, but Gibson was fantastic. He’s a top-tier goalie, and he proved it again tonight.”
Fleury, who had won his first five starts this season, made 27 saves but couldn’t prevent his first loss.
Both Gibson and Fleury, who were the Pacific Division goalies in the 2019 NHL All-Star Game, delivered standout performances to keep the game scoreless for two periods.
Anaheim had not surpassed 10 shots in any period against Vegas in their first three meetings but came out firing early, outshooting the Golden Knights 13-4 in the opening period. Fleury made a keypad save on Ryan Getzlaf midway through the period, while Gibson denied Jonathan Marchessault’s backhand near the end of the first.
In the second period, Anaheim nearly broke the deadlock when Isac Lundestrom and Comtois rushed into the zone on an odd-man break, but Fleury made a spectacular save while doing the splits to keep the game level.
Despite continued stellar goaltending in the third period, Fleury’s luck ran out when Comtois found the net with just under eight minutes remaining.
“Unfortunate to waste an effort like that — he was our best player tonight,” Vegas coach Peter DeBoer said of Fleury. “Given the circumstances, it was a great performance, but the guys feel like they let him down.”
Game Notes:
- Robin Lehner was initially expected to start for Vegas, but DeBoer revealed Lehner had tweaked something in the morning skate and was unable to play. Oscar Dansk served as Fleury’s backup.
- Anaheim killed both of Vegas’ power plays. The Ducks rank third in the NHL with an 87.2% penalty kill rate this season.
- Golden Knights defenseman Nick Holden started his 500th career NHL game.
- Ducks coach Dallas Eakins coached his 199th game and will hit the 200-game mark against San Jose on Monday.
Up Next:
- Anaheim wraps up its three-game road trip in San Jose on Monday.
- Vegas travels to San Jose to face the Sharks on Saturday.
