Fleury stops 35, Wild top Sharks to extend point streak to 12 games

SAN JOSE -- Marc-Andre Fleury made 35 saves and the Minnesota Wild extended their point streak to 12 games with a 5-2 victory against the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center on Saturday.

The win was Fleury's fifth straight.
"They obviously came out with a lot of jump and we didn't handle it real well at the start," Minnesota coach Dean Evason said. "'Flower' kept us in the hockey game, made some incredible saves to allow us to get our legs under us, and maybe more so our minds straight. When we started playing the way we're supposed to play and know we can play, we got better and better."
Marcus Johansson, Mats Zuccarello, Matt Boldy and Jared Spurgeon each had a goal and an assist for the Wild (37-21-7), who are 10-0-2 during the point streak.
Minnesota remained five points ahead of the Colorado Avalanche, who have played two fewer games, for second place in the Central Division.
Logan Couture and Tomas Hertl each had a goal and an assist, and James Reimer made 24 saves for the Sharks (19-36-12), who have lost eight of nine.
"We played a good hockey game," San Jose coach David Quinn said. "We were sniping from an offensive perspective; we had plenty of scoring chances. Fleury played great. And we've just been finding ways to lose. We've looked at it until we're blue in the face and I don't think we've played much differently at home than we have on the road."
Spurgeon put the Wild ahead 1-0 at 1:44 of the first period when he collected a pass from Zuccarello and scored on a breakaway.

Couture tied it 1-1 at 10:19 of the second period, scoring on a rebound of a shot by Erik Karlsson.
With the assist, Karlsson set the single-season franchise record for most points by a defenseman with 84 (20 goals, 64 assists) in 67 games. Brent Burns, currently with the Carolina Hurricanes, set the Sharks' previous record of 83 in 2018-2019.
"I think we've done a fairly good job here for the most part this season," Karlsson said. "I think it's been tough the last few weeks. Hopefully we can just keep building on the things that we want to build on and move it forward."
Frederick Gaudreau gave Minnesota a 2-1 lead at 18:03 with a power-play goal, scoring in his second straight game.
"I thought the last five [minutes] of the second and then the third we played a lot better, got back to just being stingy," Spurgeon said.
Johansson extended it to 3-1 just 30 seconds into the third period when he tipped a shot from Klingberg.

Hertl cut it to 3-2 at 8:36 after scoring in front of the net on the power play before Zuccarello made it 4-2 at 11:00 with a power-play goal of his own.
Boldy scored an empty-net goal at 18:03 for the 5-2 final.
"I thought a lot of guys had good nights, and it's disappointing to get the result we got," Quinn said.