Marc-Andre Fleury’s surge gives Wild hope as season winds down

Marc-Andre Fleury typically has a game or two off in between starts.

He’s handled both ends of a back-to-back, competed at home and on the road and faced teams from both sides of the playoff cutline.

But regardless of the circumstances, the outcome for the last two months has often been the same: the Wild are usually victorious.

“Feels good,” Fleury said. “Feels good to win. Feels good to help once in a while.”

Fleury and Filip Gustavsson have been taking turns between the pipes all season long but if the Wild do offer up a busier workload to Fleury as their playoff race heats up, the future Hall-of-Famer will be ready for it.

“Yeah,” he said, “I love to play. I love to battle, compete with the guys. Those games, every night means a lot to get the win, and those games are fun to be part of. You play for something big. It’s intense.”

His 22-save effort in the 4-1 win vs. Arizona on Tuesday was the first time Fleury rattled off consecutive starts in more than two months.

The veteran netminder returned to the crease after backstopping the Wild to their unconventional 4-3 win over Nashville on Sunday that saw the team pull Fleury in overtime to gain an extra attacker even though it meant risking the point they’d already received.

Before those appearances, Fleury hadn’t started two straight games since Jan. 6-8, but that was when Gustavsson was hurt; all the way back on Nov. 7-9 was the last instance of him starting two in a row while Gustavsson was available.

“We got a lot of hockey coming down the stretch,” coach John Hynes said. “We’re going to need both players to be able to give us very good goaltending down the stretch to continue to make a push.”

Gustavsson is coming off his sharpest showing of late, his 38 stops against Colorado last Friday helping the Wild snag a point from an overtime loss, but it’s Fleury who’s been in net for most of the team’s recent progress toward the final wild-card berth in the Western Conference.

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He’s 8-2 with a .922 save percentage and 2.11 goals-against average since Jan. 13. Only twice in that span has the 39-year-old been tagged with more than two goals. Overall, Fleury is 15-11-3 with a .902 save percentage and 2.79 goals-against average to become the second-winningest goalie in NHL history and only the fourth to log 1,000-plus career games.

“Flower’s played very well,” Hynes said. “He’s been very consistent. The results are there. The consistency in his game is there. He’s making game-changing saves.”

What amplifies those contributions even more is the fact Fleury could be performing this way for another team.

The three-time Stanley Cup champ and Vezina Trophy recipient could have pursued a trade elsewhere before the deadline last week, perhaps joining a contender who is near the top of the standings before figuring out after the season whether he’ll retire or keep playing.

Instead, Fleury chose to stay put, and the decision has been a boon for the Wild’s playoff hopes ever since.

“Sometimes when you play more, it doesn’t feel as new every time you go back in,” he said. “That’s the nice thing about it. But just happy to be battling with the guys here and just gotta keep winning here.”