Fleury wins debut in St Paul

In St Paul, Marc-Andre Fleury made 23 saves in his debut with the Minnesota Wild on Saturday, the Wild won the game, 3-2, in overtime over the Columbus Blue Jackets.

“Still a bit nervous to do well in the first game here,” Fleury said. “Just happy to get a win, you know? It’s all I wanted for the first game here, so I was just happy to celebrate with the guys and keep this [winning] streak alive.”

The Wild improved to 39-20-4.

“Just [Fleury’s] compete is phenomenal,” Wild coach Dean Evason said. “He’s aggressive. He competes. The save on [Patrik] Laine at the end, that’s a world-class shooter and for him to come out like that, challenge, give no opportunity and then we’re able to transition and get going the other way because of it. That was a big save for us.”

Jared Spurgeon won it for the Wild with a goal at 1:24 of the extra session.

“[We] just [have] the belief all the time,” Spurgeon said. “I think our second period sort of got away from what we were doing in the first period. Just overextending shifts and then you get stuck out there and we’re not as aggressive as we usually are, which is what makes us good. We had to fix that.”

Jake Bean and Jakub Voracek were the Columbus strikers.

“I’m frustrated for our guys, I’m going to be quite honest,” Blue Jackets coach Brad Larsen said. “They played so hard tonight. They really did and I really wanted that win for them, for that group, to feel good about themselves, and they should because what they laid on the line tonight, it was impressive to me. It was. This group continues to surprise me in such a good way.

“Disappointed they don’t get to enjoy it with the music tonight but that’s a good hockey team they lost to.”

Columbus dropped to 32-29-5.

“Sometimes you get a lot of looks and those are the ones that go in,” Bean said.

Kirill Kaprizov scored twice for the Wild in regulation.

“There’s something special there,” Evason said of Kaprizov. “The knack to step up. We’ve seen it through history that great players do that. They don’t score necessarily in the 7-1 hockey games. They score in all situations but most importantly in these tight type of games and step up and find a way. He’s a special player.”