Deryk Engelland scored his second goal of the season in the third period to lift the Vegas Golden Knights to a 2-1 win over the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night.
Shea Theodore also scored for the Golden Knights and Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 33 shots for his league-leading 33rd win of the season. Vegas pulled seven points behind second-place San Jose in the Pacific Division and 10 behind first-place Calgary. The Golden Knights have won five straight since acquiring Mark Stone from Ottawa at the NHL trade deadline.
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Fleury, who recorded back-to-back shutouts in his previous two starts, tied Jacques Plante for eighth on the NHL’s all-time wins list with his 437th victory. The 15-year veteran netminder has allowed just one goal in his last 228 minutes, 43 seconds.
Vegas improved to 14-5-2 against the tightly contested Pacific Division, and 3-0-0 in March. The Golden Knights are 5-2-0 against Calgary all-time, including a perfect 4-0-0 mark at home.
Engelland, who played 226 games for the Flames from 2014-17, scored his first goal since Dec. 6 when he beat Calgary goalie David Rittich with a tight fit into the corner.
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Travis Hamonic scored Calgary’s lone goal, while Rittich made 36 saves. Rittich, who dropped to 22-7-5, is 10-3-2 since Dec. 31.
Calgary, which is 7-3-1 in its last 11 games, is now 0-3-0 in March. The Flames, who are 17-7-3 since the calendar flip to 2019, are now 11-7-2 against their divisional foes this season. Calgary had its four-game road win streak snapped.
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Vegas visits Calgary on Sunday for the final meeting of the season.
Theodore put the defending Western Conference champs on top midway through the first, when he gathered a long rebound near the point and fired a slap shot into the top corner, giving Vegas a 1-0 lead.
Calgary thought it tied the game when Johnny Gaudreau backhanded a rebound past Fleury. But after the goal was challenged for goaltender interference, officials ruled “the actions of (Matthew) Tkachuk impaired Fleury’s ability to defend his goal.”
Fleury’s career-high scoreless streak came to an end in the second period, when Hamonic lasered a slap shot from the point to tie the score at 1-all. Fleury hadn’t allowed a goal in the previous 200:41.
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Tempers flared near the end of the second when Tkachuck backed into Fleury and Golden Knights defenceman Colin Miller took offence. After the two tussled, Tkachuck got in Fleury’s face, and was met by Vegas’ Cody Eakin and Nate Schmidt. Then it was Fleury laying his stick down and removing his right glove while staring down Rittich, who didn’t budge from his zone.
Calgary, which has outscored opponents 96-64 in the third period, was outshot 15-11 in the third period while being kept out of the net by Fleury.
NOTES:
William Karlsson played in his 150th as a member of the Golden Knights.
Vegas forward Reilly Smith has a point in 10 of his last 13 games (four goals, nine assists).
The Flames came into the game 7-0-0 in the first game of a back-to-back this season.
UP NEXT:
Flames: At Arizona on Thursday night.
Golden Knights: At Vancouver on Saturday night.
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