Fleury wins 500th game by shutting out the Canadian

(Montreal) Marc-André Fleury became the third goalie in NHL history to reach the 500-win plateau on Thursday night at the Bell Center, while the Canadian continued to rack up losses.

Fleury stopped 30 shots to accomplish the feat, helping the Chicago Blackhawks defeat the Montreal side 2-0.

The Sorel native goaltender is third in NHL history in wins, behind Patrick Roy (551) and Martin Brodeur (691).

Fleury was credited with a 69^e quarry laundering. It occupies the 14^e rank in the history of the circuit in this regard.

The Blackhawks didn’t have to push too hard to win. The Canadian generated very few scoring opportunities, showing in particular not being effective out of the zone.

Jonathan Toews and Henrik Borgstrom hit the target for the Blackhawks (10-14-2).

Jake Allen turned away 23 shots in front of the Canadiens net (6-19-3), who suffered a fifth straight loss (0-4-1).

Striker Jesse Ylönen became the 27^e different skater to put on the Canadian uniform this season, relieves Christian Dvorak, injured lower body on Tuesday.

The Canadian will play his next two away games: Saturday against the St. Louis Blues and Tuesday against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The Hawks Affair

The meeting could have taken a different shape if Mike Hoffman had taken advantage of an opportunity from the first moments of the meeting. The Canadiens forward, however, sliced ​​the air on a Nick Suzuki throw-in from behind the net, as he was hit in the face by Borgstrom’s stick. The referees did not see the infringement on the play.

The Canadian also had good times during a power play in the first half of the first period, without however deceiving the vigilance of Fleury.

The Habs’ troubles leaving the zone ended up giving the Blackhawks opportunities. Allen came to Alexander Romanov’s rescue by frustrating Dominik Kubalik late in the first twenty.

Allen must have saved the furniture a bit later when he blundered himself behind his net. He dived just to deflect a backhand shot from Patrick Kane, who thought he could throw into an abandoned net.

The Canadian knocked on the door early in the second period, but Ryan Poehling was unable to take advantage of a nice comeback from Artturi Lehkonen.

The rest of the period was the Blackhawks’ business.

Allen held on for a long time. He stole a definite goal from Alex DeBrincat by stretching out his right arm to make the save with his shield during a delayed penalty against the Canadiens.

The Habs goaltender was also alert at the expense of Ryan Carpenter, who shot from the box during a Blackhawks power play.

Philipp Kurashev also had two chances to open the scoring, but he ran into Allen.

The Blackhawks finally broke through in front of the Canadiens’ net with 6:12 left in the second period. Toews hit the target on the power play, deflecting a perfect rebate from Calvin De Haan.

The first half of the final third was not very lively, then the Blackhawks dealt a blow to the Canadiens’ hopes by adding a second goal with 8:00 to go. Borgstrom took advantage of a confusion between Romanov and Ben Chiarot to recover a free puck in the box and surprise Allen.

The Canadiens finally managed to put a little more pressure on the Blackhawks’ defense late in the game, but Fleury made sure he could celebrate in front of family and friends.

The spectators underlined the feat by chanting the name of Fleury during the last seconds of the meeting.