Fleury ties for third on NHL's all-time wins as Golden Knights beat Coyotes

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Jonathan Marchessault scored on a power play at 3:04 of overtime, Marc-Andre Fleury moved into a tie for the third on the NHL’s all-time wins list and the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Arizona Coyotes 3-2 on Saturday night.

Marchessault missed Friday’s game with a lower-body injury and was frustrated with himself for a slashing penalty in the third period, but made up for it with his game winner.

""It felt pretty good to get on the board tonight," he said.

The Coyotes got off to a slow start a night after ending the Golden Knights’ 10-game winning streak with a 3-0 win.

William Karlsson and Mark Stone scored to put Vegas up, and Fleury was sharp through the first two periods.

Arizona came to life in the third period, with Christian Fischer scoring midway through and Christian Dvorak tying it on a power play with 5 1/2 minutes left.

Arizona was called for too many men on the ice in overtime and Marchessault beat Darcy Kuemper from the left circle to help Vegas maintain a four-point lead in the West Division after Colorado beat San Jose. The Golden Knights have won 11 of 12.

Fleury stopped 19 shots match Roberto Luongo for third all-time with 289 wins.

"Roberto is a guy I watched from his junior days and I got to play against him a bunch, in the NHL, too," Fleury said. "Being a French-Canadian guy as well, I always kept an eye on him to see what he was doing. He was one of those goalies I watched growing up and tried to imitate."

Kuemper stopped 31 shots for Arizona, which four points behind St. Louis for the final playoff spot in the West Division with four games left.

"We didn’t skate, we lost battles, just not good," Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet said. "Five, six guys weren’t skating and after the first we adjusted a couple of things and guys started to skate. It was a good game."

The Golden Knights and Coyotes played a physical game on Friday and the hits kept coming less than 24 hours later.

Vegas dominated early, firing off 14 of the first 15 shots, and Karlsson scored on a one-timer from just outside the crease on a pass by Reilly Smith.

Stone made it 2-0 with midway through the second, beating Kuemper to the glove side after an ill-advised drop pass by Arizona’s Christian Fischer at the other end led to a 2-on-1. Stone eclipsed 20 goals for the eighth straight season.

Fleury stopped Phil Kessel on an early breakaway in the third period, but Fischer beat him to the stick side midway through after a puck caromed to the slot.

Dvorak tied it when he skated free through the slot on a power play and beat Fleury to the stick side.

"That’s good resiliency," Fischer said. "We tie it up there, gave ourselves a chance to win in overtime. It’s very, very unfortunate how that ended."

OVERTIME CALL

The Coyotes were not happy with the too-man-men call in overtime that set up the winning goal. They thought the player in question was close enough to not draw a call, but the officials didn’t see it that way.

"They’re good refs. They’ll probably ref deep in the playoffs," Tocchet said. "There was a lot of clutching and holding. There were a couple (calls) where it seemed like they singled us out, but that’s the way it works."

ICE CHIPS

Coyotes D Jordan Oesterle skated during warmups, but was out the lineup for the 11th straight game for undisclosed reasons. ? Vegas won the season series 6-2. ? Vegas LW Max Pacioretty left with an injury, but coach Peter DeBoer didn’t have an update on his status. ? Coyotes C John Hayden did not play after due to COVID-19 protocols

UP NEXT

The Golden Knights open a two-game series at Minnesota on Monday.

The Coyotes host the first of two games against the Los Angeles Kings on Monday.

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