LAS VEGAS — Marc-Andre Fleury made 31 saves for his 450th win, including a diving stop late in the game, and the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 on Tuesday night.
Fleury is three wins behind New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist for sixth place on the career list.
Mark Stone, Cody Glass, Tomas Nosek and Cody Eakin scored for Vegas. But for the second consecutive game it was Fleury who kept the Golden Knights in it with outstanding saves — particularly when the Maple Leafs turned up the pressure in the third period.
With 14:59 left, the 16-year veteran netminder stopped William Nylander on the doorstep. Then with 11:21 remaining, he stymied Toronto captain John Tavares’ first shot of the game, tipped the puck with the paddle of his stick to himself and snared it with his glove.
It was that kind of night for Fleury.
Moments later, with the heat still on, he robbed Nylander by sliding across the crease and stretching out his left pad at the right moment to prevent the puck from sneaking into the corner of the net.
The biggest save came with 3:43 to go, when Nic Petan’s backhand toward a wide-open net was thwarted as Fleury dove back to his left and with his body outstretched snatched the puck before it hit twine, sending 18,292 fans into a frenzy — even some wearing Maple Leafs jerseys.
Jason Spezza and Zach Hyman scored for Toronto. Frederik Andersen, who has lost his last four starts, made 33 saves.
Vegas scored on both power-play opportunities and outshot the Maple Leafs 37-33.
After Max Pacioretty’s shot trickled through Anderson’s pads into the crease, Glass was there to clean up for a man-advantage goal that gave Vegas a 1-0 lead midway through the second period.
Toronto tied it when Ilya Mikheyev entered the zone and dropped the puck off for Spezza, who fired it past Fleury early in the third.
Vegas answered immediately when Nosek stole the pick in the neutral zone, raced in on a breakaway, put a filthy deke on Andersen and backhanded the puck into the net to make it 2-1 just 42 seconds after Spezza’s goal.
Stone extended the lead to 3-1 with a power-play drive from the right dot at 10:22. Hyman cut Vegas’ lead to one with his first goal of the season at 12:47, but Eakin put the game away when he scored into an empty net with 21 seconds left.
NOTES: After the Maple Leafs placed forward Trevor Moore on injured reserve, forward Pierre Engvall was called up Monday and made his NHL debut for Toronto. … Pacioretty has at least one point nine of his last 11 games, and Vegas defenceman Nate Schmidt has six points in the last four games — including five assists in the past two.
UP NEXT
Maple Leafs: Continue a six-game road trip, their longest of the season, Thursday at Arizona.
Golden Knights: Host division rival San Jose on Thursday.
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W.G. Ramirez, The Associated Press
