Marc-André Fleury earns his 500th win — helped by Jonathan Toews’ 1st goal of the season — in the Chicago Blackhawks’ 2-0 victory against the Montreal Canadiens
When the puck nestled into the top of the net behind the crossbar and dropped to the ice, three of Chicago Blackhawks center Jonathan Toews’ teammates raised both arms in jubilation.
Toews simply raised his stick, head slightly bowed. But the smile was unmistakable.
The drought was over.
Toews finally ended his seasonlong goal drought during the Hawks’ 2-0 win against the Montreal Canadiens at Centre Bell on Thursday. And the bonus: The goal helped give Marc-André Fleury his 500th career win.
“The shutout didn’t bother me much, I just wanted to win,” Fleury said. “Every night, that’s all I want.”
It marks a redemption story for both Hawks.
Toews had gone 25 games and 45 shots without finding the back of the net. His previous goal came Aug. 18, 2020, in a first-round playoff game against the Vegas Golden Knights.
“Just trying to get the feel and visualize, get the puck on your stick and going into the net, being patient,” Toews said. “You’ve got to see yourself scoring goals a lot of different ways, especially when they’re not going in and try to get over that hump. I’ll take them however I can at this point.”
Toews missed the entire 2020-21 season with Chronic Immune Response Syndrome (CIRS).
The Chicago chapter of Fleury’s storied career read like horror fiction. He lost seven of his first eight starts and gave up 29 goals, a 3.63 goals-against average and .881 save percentage.
But since the coaching change from Jeremy Colliton to Derek King, Fleury has gone 7-3-0 and allowed 19 goals with a .939 save percentage.
The win Thursday marked Fleury’s second shutout of the season and 69th of his career — but it took 12 saves in the third to preserve it. Fleury stopped 30 shots overall.
The Centre Bell crowd chanted “Fleury! Fleury!” after the game for the Sorel, Quebec, native, and players from both team stayed on the ice and tapped their sticks in tribute.
“So fitting he gets this win here in Montreal, too, and the greats that he’s joined with 500 wins,” Toews said.
Added coach Derek King: “What a classy thing with the Habs fans.
The game got off to a low-energy start despite the Hawks putting 13 shots on goal in the first period and the Canadiens 12. Only three shots were high-danger, all from the Hawks.
The Canadiens were almost passive offensively until the third period.
The Hawks couldn’t get organized on their first power play. The short-handed Canadiens has as many shots on goal (one) as the Hawks. But on the second opportunity, the Hawks found clear lanes and made good use of them.
Patrick Kane passed off the wall to Seth Jones, who fired down the middle, and Toews tipped it past Jake Allen with 6 minutes, 12 seconds left in the second period.
Henrik Borgstrom padded the Hawks’ lead with a turnaround wrister with eight minutes left in the game. It was Borgstrom’s second goal of the season and first since Oct. 24 against the Detroit Red Wings.
