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By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
Marc-Andre Fleury is a good-natured fellow, with a gleeful personality and a prankster’s streak. You get the impression that those traits came in handy during the past 24 hours when he learned he tested positive for the novel coronavirus in St. Louis during a six-game road trip only to be informed that it was a false positive.
So, instead of isolating in a hotel room and tuning in to Friday’s Vegas Golden Knights vs St. Louis Blues game on TV he ultimately found himself smack in the middle of a competitive West Division game between two clubs contending for the division crown.
“A little stressful, no doubt,” Fleury said after the game. Fleury mentioned he didn’t get out of his hotel room until 12 noon or 1 pm today after two COVID tests.
Fleury was between the pipes as they say and was awarded with a 2-0 lead after one period thanks to goals by team captain Mark Stone (7th) and feisty forward Jonathan Marchessault (8th).
But St. Louis countered with the middle stanza as Blues star forward Ryan O’Reilly cut the lead in half with his ninth of this abbreviated 56-game, division-only pandemic season.
The Knights’ Tomas Nosek scored his second of the season to restore the two-goal lead before the Blues’ Vladimir Tarasenko cut the St. Louis deficit to 3-2 before the teams went into the second intermission.
In the third period, Knights coach Pete DeBoer thought the Blues had too many players on the ice and wanted a penalty. But no dice.
So naturally, St. Louis proceeded to score the equalizer at 4:53 of the third period on a goal by Zach Michael Sanford, his eighth.
And then former original Golden Knight David Perron, who enjoys scoring goals against his former Misfit mates, registered his 11th of the campaign to give the Blues a 4-3 lead at 10:40 of the final period.
The lead didn’t last long for St. Louis. Less than a minute later, Knights defenseman Alec Martinez scored his second goal of the season and these two teams known to play some wild games were tied at four apiece at the 11:27 mark.
This being a St. Louis vs Vegas game, naturally this game went to overtime with a pair of fours.
And it’s Reilly Smith who delivered the OT game-winner, his sixth of the season with the assists going to Marchessault and Martinez.
Final: Golden Knights 5 Blues 4 OT.
VGK moved to 17-6-1 and 7-4 on the road, while the Blues dropped to 14-8-5.