Zach Fucale set an NHL shutout streak record against the Minnesota Wild on Saturday. He almost made one of the best saves of the NHL season late in the game.
Fucale dove across the crease 12 seconds into overtime to rob Ryan Hartman of a gimme goal. The save left NBC Sports Washington’s Joe Beninati stunned in the booth.
“OHHHH!! WHAT A STOP BY FUCALE. BRILLIANT ON THE HEADLONG DIVE.”
Marc-Andre Fleury has found a second life in Las Vegas since being selected in the expansion draft in 2017. The French-Canadian goalie has won 75 of his 124 starts in Sin City. The three-time Stanley Cup champion (all with the Penguins) also led the Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup Final during their inaugural season in the NHL.
Tuesday, Fleury made perhaps the greatest save of his career against the Toronto Maple Leafs. You’ve probably seen it already, but if you haven’t, take a look.
By Ian Oland 4 years ago
Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby may have given up five goals on Sunday, but he was as good as one could be with bad defense in front of him.
During an especially wobbly second period, Holtby kept the Caps within striking distance. The Holtbeast gave up three goals, but he stopped what appeared to be a sure-fire fourth by sweeping it off the goal line.
Washington Capitals backup goaltender Philipp Grubauer arrived in Cologne over the weekend to represent his home country of Germany in the 2017 World Championship.
In the team’s final preliminary round game against Latvia, Germany started Grubauer days after Thomas Greiss did some awful things on the internet. Greiss, who is currently injured, liked a social media post comparing Hillary Clinton to Adolf Hitler.
Grubauer was spectacular in the win, making 27 saves in Germany’s 4-3 shootout victory. The clutch W pushes Germany into the quarterfinals where they will Canada on Thursday.
Grubauer’s best save of the game was likely the best of the tournament.
The Washington Capitals beat the Dallas Stars for the first time since 2008. A big part of why was Caps backup goaltender Philipp Grubauer. Grubi has won 9 of his 12 games (9-1-2) this season and has posted a sensational 92.5% save percentage and a 2.05 goals against average. And to be frank, Grubauer has the talent and ability to start on about half of the teams in the league if he weren’t in the Capitals organization.
On Saturday, Grubauer willed the Caps into overtime after making a game-saving stop with 10:30 left in the third period. Using his power and quickness, Grubi slid to the opposite side of the crease and stopped Tyler Seguin’s wrist shot with his blocker pad. It was stunning.
Capitals top goaltending prospect, Ilya Samsonov, suffered a rare loss Wednesday night as Metallurg Magnitogorsk fell to Avangard Omsk 5-2. It was only the 19-year-old’s second regulation loss in 22 KHL games this season.
But that doesn’t mean Samsonov didn’t have his moments. Such as seven minutes into the first period where Ilya made a series of insane, sprawling saves. Diving back and forth across the crease in a crazed effort to deflect shot after shot, the Metallurg Magnitogorsk goalie (and the post) turned away three quality scoring chances at the same time.
By Graham Dumas 7 years ago
Capitals top goaltending prospect, Ilya Samsonov, has given up a lot of goals in his first two starts for Russia at the 2017 IIHF World Junior Championship. Samsonov surrendered 5 goals against Canada on Monday and 3 goals against the United States on Thursday, giving the 19-year-old goaltender a 4.01 goals against average.
Yet, he’s been stunning in net. Samsonov has seen the second most shots of any WJC goaltender (74) and has the fifth-best (all strengths) save percentage at .892%. Samsonov’s numbers are poor because Russia’s defense has been shredded by better teams at even strength and dominated on the penalty kill, where Samsonov has given up 4 of his 8 goals.
Against the United States, Samsonov authored his most fantastic save of the tournament, stopping a gimme two-on-one goal with some weird, Dominik Hasek-esque flopping.
Caps prospect Ilya Samsonov has been dominating the KHL this season.
The 19-year-old goaltender is undefeated, tallying wins in 9 of his first 15 appearances. The 2015 first-found pick also has a .937 save percentage and a 1.97 goals against average.
Monday night, Samsonov posted his first shutout of the season against Dynamo Moscow, making 35 saves. His most difficult stop came with 11 seconds remaining in the game.
I was going to give this story a sexy title like: TJ Oshie Goes Top Shelf, Unstoppable In Shootout, but the Caps shootout victory over the Ducks was a true team victory. For those who stayed up until 1 AM last night, you know what I mean.
Photo: Geoff Burke
We’ve said this before, but Braden Holtby is really good (even when he’s not actually playing in an actual hockey game). Against the Islanders on Thursday night, Holtby was tremendous, stopping 24 of 26 shots. His best save came in the third period on John Tavares, but we didn’t notice until NBCSN showed a slo-mo replay.
