Marc-Andre Fleury had 19 saves to pick up his second consecutive shutout and league-leading eighth of the season as the Vegas Golden Knights cruised to a 3-0 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas.
It was the league-leading 32nd victory this season for Fleury, who also garnered his 56th career shutout, just one behind Clint Benedict (57) for 20th place on the NHL all-time career shutouts list. Fleury has 436 career victories, one from tying Jacques Plante for eighth place in NHL history.
Max Pacioretty, Ryan Carpenter and Reilly Smith all scored goals for Vegas, which outshot the Canucks 48-19, including 38-14 over the first two periods. The Golden Knights, who increased their third-place lead in the Pacific Division to eight points over the idol Arizona Coyotes, also improved to 6-0-0 all-time against the Canucks.
Jacob Markstrom finished with 45 saves for Vancouver, which lost its third straight game (0-2-1) and sixth in their last seven (1-4-2).
Pacioretty gave Vegas a 1-0 lead with his team-leading 21st goal of the season, one-timing a Nate Schmidt pass from the high slot into the upper right-hand corner of the goal to start a three-goal second period for the Golden Knights.
Carpenter made it 2-0 just 2:39 later with his fifth goal of the season, snapping in a rebound of a Pierre-Edouard Bellemare shot from the bottom of the right circle.
Smith followed with his third goal in three games and 13th of the season, lofting a shot over a diving Markstrom from the right side of the goal off a crossing pass from William Karlsson.
Fleury, who went over 15 minutes in the third period without facing a shot, has allowed just one goal in his last three games and enters Wednesday night's game against Western Conference-leading Calgary with a shutout streak of 168 minutes and 40 seconds.
--Field Level Media
Vancouver | Vegas | |
N/A | Points | Ryan Carpenter 1 |
N/A | Goals | Ryan Carpenter 1 |
N/A | Assists | Pierre-Edouard Bellemare 1 |
N/A | Power Play Goals | N/A |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | N/A |
Jacob Markstrom .938 | Save Percentage | Marc-Andre Fleury 1.000 |
Jacob Markstrom 45 | Saves | Marc-Andre Fleury 19 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Vancouver | 19 | 0 | 0-0 | 2-2 | 4 | 27 |
Vegas | 48 | 3 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 30 |