Golden Knights blank Capitals 3-0 to end homestand with 4-0-1 mark

Sometimes a goalie knows he’s going to get much of the credit when his teammates do a bulk of the work.

Take Marc-Andre Fleury on Saturday against the Washington Capitals.

Fleury’s Golden Knights scored three times over the first 14:55 and then the goaltender did his part in a 3-0 victory before 18,025 at T-Mobile Arena.

“I thought the guys did a great job in front of my net, picking up their guys and keeping them on the outside,” said a humble Fleury, who stopped 26 shots in notching his first shutout as a Knight and 45th of his career.

The Knights, who finished a five-game homestand 4-0-1, head into the NHL’s three-day Christmas break with a 23-9-2 overall record, 15-2-1 at home.

Fleury has a long history of success versus Washington. In 37 career games against the Capitals, he is 21-12-2 with two no-decisions and four shutouts.

“I guess you pick up a few things over the years,” Fleury said. “But you can’t predict what’s going to happen. They have a lot of talented guys over there.”

But with his fellow Knights buzzing early and competing hard throughout, Fleury held off a dangerous offensive team. He stopped Nicklas Backstrom at the right doorstep in the second period, then denied Alex Ovechkin from the slot in the final seconds with the Capitals on the power play looking to ruin his shutout bid.

It was only the second time this season Washington has been shut out. The other came Oct. 17 when the Capitals lost 2-0 to Toronto.

“He’s a first-class goaltender,” Knights coach Gerard Gallant said of Fleury. “We didn’t play at the same level in the second and third period, but he made some key saves.”

The Knights came out flying and had the Capitals flatfooted. Alex Tuch camped out at the right post and put home the rebound of Brendan Leipsic’s shot past Braden Holtby 2:37 into the game.

Oscar Lindberg then took a pass from Tomas Nosek and wristed one past Holtby at 7:39.

William Karlsson got his 16th on a slick setup. Jonathan Marchessault dropped the puck behind to Reilly Smith, who quickly moved it cross-ice to Karlsson at the right faceoff circle. His one-timer flew past a slow-reacting Holtby to make it 3-0 with 5:05 left in the period.

“We lost really in the first 10 (minutes),” said Capitals coach Barry Trotz. “We talked about this team, how they like to jump on teams. … You’ve got to play quick against these guys. If you’re not ready for it, with their speed — and they really compete on the puck — they’ll just overtake you and they’ll surround you and they’ll buzz you. And they really did.”

Tuch, whose goal was his eighth, agreed about the fast start. “That gave us a lot of momentum and got our crowd into it,” he said. “Whenever you can get the first one, that’s big.

“But we were skating fast and moving the puck out of our end and creating a lot of good chances. It was definitely the kind of start we wanted against a really good team.”

The Knights are 15-1 when they score first.

And now, it’s time for a break. The Knights come back after Christmas for a two-game road trip at Anaheim on Wednesday and Los Angeles on Thursday.

“We know we’ve had a good run here,” Gallant said. “I told the guys to enjoy the next three days, get away from hockey and enjoy their families. Then come back and be ready to go.”

Contact Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow @stevecarprj on Twitter.