Minnesota Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury has played a complementary role in his 21st NHL season.
Suddenly, the 40-year-old netminder has been thrust back into regular action because of a lower-body injury to teammate Filip Gustavsson, who left last Thursday’s 7-1 home loss to the Edmonton Oilers.
Fleury will make his third start in the past six games when the Wild host the Florida Panthers on Wednesday night in St. Paul, Minn.
“Sad to hear about ‘Gus,'” Fleury said about Gustavsson, whose injury is described as short term by Wild coach John Hynes. “Hopefully, things aren’t too bad for too long for him. …
“If I can give the team a chance to win when I’m in there, I think that’s all I want. Obviously, winning is always the goal.”
The Wild have alternated wins and losses in each of their past six games. They are coming off a 3-2 home setback against the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday evening.
Florida will make its first trip to Minnesota since the Panthers won the Stanley Cup last season. The Panthers are coming off a 6-5 win at Edmonton on Monday night and are 7-2-1 in their last 10 games.
Panthers coach Paul Maurice said everyone deserves credit for the recent victories, including the fourth line of Tomas Nosek, A.J. Greer and Jonah Gadjovich.
“Sam Reinhart for me is the best player on the ice, but that line as a group is probably the most impactful,” Maurice said. “I’m happy for them. …
“Now they get a real big piece of that (most recent) win, which builds your room.”
Reinhart leads Florida with 41 points (20 goals, 21 assists) in 32 games. Matthew Tkachuk ranks second with 31 (11 goals, 20 assists) in 27 games and captain Aleksander Barkov is third with 29 (nine goals, 20 assists) in 22 games.
Barkov missed the Panthers’ last game because of an illness. His status is uncertain for Wednesday.
Minnesota is led by red-hot forward Kirill Kaprizov, who has 47 points (22 goals, 25 assists) in 30 games. Matt Boldy is next with 29 (13 goals, 16 assists) in 31 games, and Marco Rossi ranks third with 25 (11 goals, 14 assists) in 31 games.
Kaprizov has scored twice in each of his past two games. He has 13 points (nine goals, 4 assists) in his past 10 games.
Florida could go back to Sergei Bobrovsky after he gave up five goals on 30 shots in Monday’s win. Bobrovsky is 14-6-1 with a 2.98 goals-against average and an .889 save percentage in 21 games.
In 20 career games against Minnesota, Bobrovsky is 13-5-1 with a 2.37 GAA and a .918 save percentage.
Spencer Knight is another option for the Panthers. He is 5-5-1 with a 2.85 GAA and an .890 save percentage in 12 games. Knight has faced Minnesota once in a backup role. He stopped all six shots he faced and did not factor into the decision.
Fleury is no stranger to facing Florida. In 32 games against the Panthers, he is 18-10-2 with a 2.29 GAA and a .922 save percentage.
The Wild are 8-5-1 at home. The Panthers are 10-6-1 on the road.
–Field Level Media