Fans chant his name after Blackhawks goalie beats the Canadiens 2-0 to become only the third netminder to win 500 games in the NHL.
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The home team lost again, but the less-than-capacity crowd at the Bell Centre had something to celebrate as Sorel native Marc-André Fleury posted his 500th career victory.
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As the seconds ticked down on the Blackhawks’ 2-0 victory over the Canadiens Thursday night, the crowd erupted with a chant of ‘”Fleury, Fleury, Fleury.”
His teammates mobbed the goaltender as the final horn sounded and there was another chorus of the Fleury chant as he was introduced as the game’s No. 1 star.
“I don’t know why, but this building I’ve always had a tough time winning games,” said Fleury, who joined his teammates in a post-game meal of poutine and hotdogs. “It meant a lot to have so many people from Quebec maybe being proud of me being from here and achieving this goal.”
Fleury is one of the best-liked people in the game and coach Dominique Ducharme was happy to see him get 500, but wasn’t happy it happened here.
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“It must be special for him,” Ducharme said. “Five hundred wins, you have to tip your hat. We would like him to get it, but not against us.”
Fleury made 30 saves, including five in the final 90 seconds, to post his 69th career shutout. He joined fellow Quebecers Martin Brodeur (691 wins) and Patrick Roy (551) as the only goaltenders to win 500 games. To put the achievement in perspective, the next active goaltender on the list is Carey Price with 360.
Jonathan Drouin, who had a team-high four shots on goal, paid tribute to Fleury.
“I trained with Marc-André for several summers when I was young,” Drouin said. “He’s one of the nicest people I’ve met in my career. He is very humble and always working on his game. Honestly, I would have preferred to see him win his 500th game on TV tomorrow or another day, but I’m happy for him. It is well deserved. “
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Ducharme said there were some positives to take out of the game.
“We were right there until the end,” Ducharme said. “Five-on-five, it was a pretty even game. They scored a power-play goal and one mistake with eight minutes to go cost us. We did some good things, but we want to generate more offensively. Defensively, were pretty sound (and) we didn’t give up much. Fleury made not a ton of saves but he made the key saves at the right time.”
It was the fifth consecutive loss, but Ducharme said he wasn’t concerned that losing has become acceptable.
“We have to concentrate on the way we play,” Ducharme said. “If you look at the last three games, you can’t say we quit on games, that we didn’t show up. We’re going to stick with that and control what we can do every day. Down inside. everyone is a competitor.”
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Jake Allen turned in another solid performance. Jonathan Toews scored on a power play for his first goal of the season and Henrik Borgstrom was handed a gift when an errant pass from Alexander Romanov gave him a point-blank shot from the slot.
Brett Kulak said the Canadiens have played better in recent games despite mounting injuries.
“There are a lot of things that we are doing better, where we’ve improved and are giving ourselves chances to win,” Kulak said. “The important thing now is to continue building on our strengths. Jake (Allen) is playing really well and giving us a chance to win every game. We just need to polish some things and find a way to take the lead and play well when we’re ahead.”
Jesse Ylönen made his season debut after he was recalled from Laval to replace the injured Christian Dvorak. He played only seven minutes, but did see some time on the power play.
“My experience last year allowed me to see the speed of the game in the NHL and the level of competition,” Ylönen said. “I was a little more comfortable this time around.”
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2021-12-10 05:07:39Z
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