Marc-Andre Fleury made 36 saves for the visiting Minnesota Wild in a 3-1 win against the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night.
Mats Zuccarello had a goal and two assists, Matt Boldy had a goal and an assist and Marco Rossi also scored for the Wild, who have won five of six.
William Eklund scored and Yaroslav Askarov made 19 saves for the Sharks, who have dropped 11 of 13 three-pointers in a row.
Askarov, 22, was born a year before the 40-year-old Fleury was selected No. 1 overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2003.
Minnesota took a 1-0 lead at 5:51 of the first period.
Zuccarello raced into the neutral zone with the puck before pulling up just inside San Jose’s blue line and making a pass past Rossi, who had a step on Eklund. Rossi turned a backhand into the top of the net as he came close to scoring his 16th goal of the season.
Fleury shut out the Sharks with 16 saves in the first half.
The Wild extended their lead to 2-0 at 4:34 of the second.
Minnesota broke up a stretch pass in the neutral zone and Zuccarello fed the puck off the wall to Boldy, who got the puck just above the San Jose blue line with room to slide in the top right circle and hit a wrist shot. on the far side of the net.
Fleury stopped the first 28 shots before San Jose scored at 17:30 of the second period to cut it to 2-1.
Eklund handed off to Macklin Celebrini to his right as he sped into Minnesota territory. Celebrini took a wrist shot from the circle that was saved by Fleury with his right pad, but the rebound found its way to Eklund who lifted the net for his ninth goal of the season.
Zuccarello scored into an empty net as Askarov came off the bench for the extra attacker to extend the lead to 3-1 with 1:17 left.
–Field Level Media