Fleury makes 40 saves, Golden Knights defeat Stars

DALLAS -- Marc-Andre Fleury made 40 saves for the Vegas Golden Knights in a 2-1 win against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center on Friday.

Ryan Reaves and Max Pacioretty scored for the Golden Knights (39-27-5), who are 7-1-0 in their past eight games. Vegas is third in the Pacific Division, 11 points behind the San Jose Sharks.
Fleury has allowed five goals in winning his past six starts and leads the NHL with 35 victories.
"They've got some talented players," Fleury said. "It's fun. It's fun when it doesn't go in, right?"
WATCH: [All Golden Knights vs. Stars highlights]
Roope Hintz scored, and Anton Khudobin made 35 saves for the Stars (37-29-5), who are 6-2-0 in their past eight games. Dallas is tied with the St. Louis Blues for third in the Central Division, six points behind the second-place Nashville Predators.
"It was a playoff-style game, but we've been going through that since the break," Stars coach Jim Montgomery said. "It's been getting more and more intense. We're handling that part. The mental part has been impressive."
Reaves scored for the first time since Jan. 6 to end a 25-game goal drought at 2:37 of the third period on a rebound in the crease following a shot by Pierre-Edouard Bellemare to put Vegas ahead 2-1.
"[Bellemare] just got a good shot through, the goalie made a save, and [Bellemare] tied up the guy in front, and then it trickled to me," Reaves said. "These games and then going into the [Stanley Cup] Playoffs, they're going to be tight matches."

Pacioretty scored with a wrist shot on the rush 18 seconds into the first period to give the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead. It was the second-fastest goal in their two-year history. William Karlsson scored 14 seconds into a 6-0 win against the Sharks on Nov. 24, 2018.
"I gotta stop that, bottom line," Khudobin said. "First minute of the game. Maybe I was sleepy. It went by me five-hole."
Hintz tied the game 1-1 with a backhand shot between Fleury's pads after stealing the puck from Deryk Engelland. Hintz has four goals in a three-game goal streak and six goals in his past nine games.

Vegas was awarded a penalty shot at 1:37 of the second period while shorthanded when Esa Lindell hooked Karlsson, but Khudobin kicked away Karlsson's wrist shot with his left pad.
Dallas had two power plays late in the third period after Nate Schmidt was called for cross-checking at 14:38 and Karlsson was penalized for high sticking at 17:22, with Khudobin pulled for a 6-on-4 advantage for much of the Karlsson penalty. The Stars were 0-for-5 on the power play.
"It was busy back there," Fleury said. "They have big guys. [Alexander] Radulov's always there in front of me and [Jamie] Benn. Big dudes. I'm just trying to find the puck around them. But I've played with my D-men for a while now and I know what to expect from them and they know what to expect from me. They blocked some shots, cleared some rebounds away, got some big guys out in front, so it's always a big help to me."
Vegas swept the three-game season series, having won 4-2 on Dec. 9 and 4-1 on Feb. 26, both at home.

"It's three games against that team over there and every game's been a real battle," Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant said. "It's good hockey, and fortunately for us we came out on top."
Said Montgomery, "Going 1-1 into the third, if someone would have told us that, we would have taken it. We outshot them significantly in the third too (16-11)."

They said it

"Given the four days off it felt maybe a little bit sloppy, but the energy was there. We're close. We feel like we have the right recipe in here and we're close to putting it all together and want to make sure we do so right before the playoffs." -- Golden Knights forward Max Pacioretty
"It's frustrating giving up the second goal, giving them life and then not getting it back when we get a chance at the end. It would've been nice to grab a point out of that game." -- Stars forward Jason Spezza

Need to know

Fleury played his 796th game, breaking a tie with Rogie Vachon for 17th among goalies in NHL history. ... Fleury made his second-most saves this season (43 in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Dec. 22). … Vegas has scored once on three penalty shots this season (Jonathan Marchessault). Dallas goalies have saved both penalty shots against them. … Stars forward Mattias Janmark (foot) missed his first game this season. … Dallas is 3-7-0 in the second of back-to-back games this season, with two sets remaining.

What's next

Golden Knights: Host the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday (10 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SNW, NHL.TV)
Stars: Host the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; SN, FS-SW, NHL.TV)