Marc-Andre Fleury was two minutes away from backstopping the Golden Knights to a Game 3 win over the Canadiens in the Stanley Cup semifinals. Then he tried to play the puck behind his net.
He failed. Badly.
Fleury’s error put the puck on Josh Anderson’s stick, and Anderson promptly backhanded it into an open net for a game-tying goal. The teams wound up going to overtime Friday in Montreal.
Anderson scored again 12:53 into the extra session to give Montreal a 3-2 win and a 2-1 series lead.
Vegas outshot Montreal 40-21 in regulation (and 45-27 for the game), but Fleury’s counterpart in net, Carey Price, kept his team in the game with saves like this twisting stop of Alex Tuch.
Price’s play put the Habs in position to pursue a tie in the final minutes, and then Fleury handed it to them. Montreal pressed in the closing seconds, too, and Fleury had to make a sharp save just before the third-period horn.
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Fleury has started 15 of Vegas’ 16 playoff games this year. He entered Friday with a 1.92 goals-against average and a .923 save percentage in the postseason.
The winner of the Vegas-Montreal semifinal will advance to the Stanley Cup Final.