ST. PAUL – Sunday marked a game where Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury broke another record, but it also marked the last time ever that Fleury would play his old team, the Pittsburgh Penguins.
As fitting as it was, Evgeni Malkin opened the scoring on the power play in the second period and Sidney Crosby picked up the next two goals in the Penguins’ 3-1 win over the Wild.
“I was waiting for (Letang) to score. But it was cool, Bryan Rust said about Malkin and Crosby scoring on Fleury. “Sid and I were joking about it before the game, I was like, ‘wouldn’t that be nice if you got the game winner tonight’ and here we are.”
Crosby scored his 20th goal of the season to give the Penguins a 2-0 lead. It turned out to be the eventual winner.
“I think I got three on him. I think that was my third one,” Crosby said about scoring on Fleury. “I had one in Vegas when he was there, one here, I think last year, and that was my third one. So yeah, to get one there in the last game against him, I will remind him of that many times.”
It wasn’t a typical Crosby goal. He was left all alone in the slot and fired a shot that flubbed off Brock Faber’s stick and went into the back of the net.
“I feel like I’m going to hear about this for a long time,” Fleury said. “He still talks about his goal in Juniors against me. Lucky too. Missed his shot and it hit Fabes’s stick. It’s like, are you kidding me, this guy. I don’t know, I still played for the win. That is what matters, right? That is what pissed me off the most, losing that game.”
The Wild were able to score on the power play to make it a 2-1 game but with the empty net, Crosby beat Faber to the loose puck and poked it into the empty net to make it a 3-1 game.
Sidney Crosby beats Brock Faber to the loose puck and swipes it in the empty net, Faber destroys his stick on the pipe and throws the rest away pic.twitter.com/609HVeHZ6A
— CJ Fogler 🫡 (@cjzero) March 9, 2025
“I think it’s fun to compete. He’s probably saved a lot more than I’ve scored against him, but definitely a fun competition there,” Crosby said. “That definitely made me better, and having him as a teammate did, too. It’s one of those things that you get out there and you compete, you try to have fun with it. But I really enjoyed having him on our team.”
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