Fleury makes 29 saves, Golden Knights shut out Ducks

LAS VEGAS --Marc-Andre Fleury made 29 saves for his NHL-leading third shutout of the season, and the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Anaheim Ducks 5-0 at T-Mobile Arena on Wednesday.

"That's the way we want to play," Fleury said. "It was a consistent 60 minutes. The past few games we've had some ups and downs throughout the game and I thought this one was well-played for 60 minutes."
Cody Eakin scored two goals for his fifth multigoal game in the NHL and extend his point streak to five games (four goals, two assists).
WATCH: [All Ducks vs. Golden Knights highlights]
Alex Tuch and Nick Holden each had a goal and an assist, and Tomas Hyka scored for the Golden Knights (8-10-1), who had lost two in a row and five of seven.
"It was a step in the right direction," Eakin said. "I thought a lot of times we were gripping our sticks real tight or over backchecking and over pressuring, leaving guys open [the past couple of games]. It was a step in the right direction and we'll look to build on it."
Max Pacioretty had his first two assists for the Golden Knights and scored a point for the first time since Oct. 24 (six games).

John Gibson made nine saves on 12 shots for the Ducks (8-9-3) before being pulled 7:19 into the second period. Ryan Miller allowed two goals on 13 shots in relief.
"We didn't execute with the puck," Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said. "We didn't manage the puck properly. We had our fair share of chances and Fleury made some big stops. We didn't have enough traffic. The goals we gave up were, from our standpoint, avoidable."
Tuch scored for the second time in three games, on the power play at 17:42 of the first period to give the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead. He extended his point streak to four games (two goals, four assists).

"Tonight we had a lot to smile about," Tuch said. "It was a great team win, a great team effort. We battled, starting in the defensive zone, we were going hard at the net and we made it hard on them tonight."
Eakin scored 25 seconds into the second period to make it 2-0.
Holden was credited with a goal at 7:19 to increase the lead to 3-0. His initial shot went wide but bounced back to Ducks forward Adam Henrique, who deflected the puck past Gibson.
Eakin made it 4-0 with a shorthanded goal at 9:35, and Hyka extended the lead to 5-0 at 5:10 of the third period.

They said it

"It's a matter of bouncing back after playing a great hockey game last game. We didn't play at all tonight. It didn't matter. We were down one, but we took [three] penalties in the first period. You can't get anything going doing that stuff." -- Ducks forward Ryan Getzlaf
"It's just like losses. You smile about this 10-15 minutes, tomorrow you come back in, get back to work like nothing happened. You build off a little momentum, come back Friday and you have another big home game. St. Louis is a big test for us. If we come in, work hard as a five-man unit, I don't think we'll have a problem." -- Golden Knights forward Alex Tuch

Need to know

Anaheim has scored two goals or fewer in 10 of its past 13 games. … The Ducks announced defenseman Cam Fowler will undergo surgery Friday to repair a right facial fracture. Defenseman Andy Welinski was recalled from San Diego of the American Hockey League and had four hits in 16:06. … Ducks forward Rickard Rakell remains one goal from 100 in the NHL. ... Anaheim has alternated wins and losses in its past seven games (3-3-1). … Fleury's shutout was his 51st in the NHL, tying him with Dave Kerr, Tomas Vokoun, Rogie Vachon and Curtis Joseph for 24th all-time. … Eakin, second on the Golden Knights in goals with seven, is on a four-game point streak (four goals, two assists) since moving to the second line Nov. 8 in place of Erik Haula, who is month-to-month with a leg injury. This is the fastest Eakin has reached seven goals in his NHL career. He scored six goals in the first 20 games of the 2015-16 season.

What's next

Ducks: Host the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday (10 p.m. ET; PRIME, TSN4, NHL.TV)
Golden Knights: Host the St. Louis Blues on Friday (10 p.m. ET; ATTSN-RM, FS-MW, NHL.TV)