Marcus Foligno, Matt Boldy team up to deliver Wild a much-needed point in New Jersey

New York Times

01-04-2025

NEWARK, N.J. – The Wild, the NHL's lowest scoring team since early January, have to work so hard to score a goal that Marcus Foligno was asked what it was like during the second intermission Monday night when the Wild once again couldn't execute offensively or find a way to finish against the New Jersey Devils.
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The Wild's now-first-line winger grinned sheepishly.
'Honestly, pretty positive. Pretty numb to it now,' Foligno joked before adding a little sarcasm. 'As long as we keep that (belief) we're a goal away, I think we're fine. That's the mentality we have. I mean, no one's counting.
'Really, it's a lot of positivity. We think that if we can get one, we can get another one after. This is how we have to play. We gotta play stingy. We gotta play smart.'
The Wild got one – a tying goal from Vinnie Hinostroza early in the third period – before Minnesota's fourth line gifted Devils captain Nico Hischier a go-ahead goal due to a sloppy icing and an even sloppier turnover.
But in the waning minutes, at the exact moment coach John Hynes was about to motion for Filip Gustavsson to come to the bench for an extra attacker, Brenden Dillon — who knows Foligno well from his days on the blue line in Winnipeg — hurried an exit because he figured he was about to get demolished against the wall.
Foligno pulled up instead, but that pressure caused Dillon to turn the puck over.
It hit Foligno's skate and ricocheted right to Matt Boldy in front of the net, who showed impressive patience to get Jacob Markstrom to bite before switching to his backhand and forcing overtime with his 100th career goal with 2 minutes, 8 seconds left in regulation.
The Wild would drop the decision 3-2 in a shootout, but after losing three times in their previous four in regulation, every point is massive with the position the slumping Wild find themselves in.
The Wild entered Monday's game tied with the St. Louis Blues, winners of nine in a row, in points. They were only in the top wild-card spot because they had played one fewer game. Well, this was the Wild's game in hand, so they moved a point up on the Blues. While they're seven points up on the 10th-place Vancouver Canucks, the Calgary Flames rallied from 2-0 down in the third period to beat the Colorado Avalanche in a shootout and move into the ninth spot.
That means the Wild's playoff cushion is down to six points. The Wild have seven games left, the Canucks eight, the Flames nine.
MATT BOLDY 🗣️
He ties the game late with the 100th goal of his career!
📺: @NHLNetwork pic.twitter.com/xIu0yjVkF3
— NHL (@NHL) April 1, 2025
Sure, the Wild would have loved the extra point, but it was a nice rebound after one of the Wild's worst games since the 4 Nations Face-Off two nights earlier against the Devils in St. Paul.
'There were two objectives coming in the game,' Hynes said. 'Let's make sure that we get back to the game that gives us the best chance to win with the mentality and the details and things like that. We did that, and then you've got to come out with one or two points every game. That's what our objective is, and we accomplished both tonight.'
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Foligno was rewarded with top-line duty after he had a goal, an assist, four hits and a 59.7 percent expected goals rate in Saturday's defeat. It paid off. Not only did he assist on Boldy's tying goal, Foligno also drew two penalties, had two shots and collected a game-high six hits. Along with Marco Rossi and Jake Middleton, who each had four hits, Foligno was the Wild's most engaged player.
'I'm liking the way I'm playing,' Foligno said. 'I think it's just back to simple and straightforward and physical, and that's how I have to be. It's the best time of year to be at the top of my game. Yeah, when you see your name up there, you think, 'I need to have a good game tonight and you gotta do something early.' So it was nice to get that late one and great play by Bolds there.'
Boldy, who was having a tough game at that point and especially on two stagnant Wild power plays, buried his 25th goal when the Wild needed it most. Markstrom is such a big goalie, Boldy said he didn't see much there at first. So he tried to wait him out.
'It was just a great play by Moose,' Boldy said. 'He starts that whole thing. He's such a presence on the ice, so big and strong. Guys know when he's out there so for him to have the wherewithal to kind of make that play was great. So all credit to him. He's someone I love to play with. Everyone knows when he's on the ice.'
'Everyone thought I was just going to go run (Dillon) and hit him,' Foligno joked. 'I think I'm learning a little bit to slow down myself. Can't be crashing the boards every game. There's a time and place for a physical play. There's a time and place to be smart and they got a lot of poise where they fake little passes and hold back and come out the other side.
'It's frustrating when you don't go to hit someone and they do that and they come out the other side. You kind of feel like you didn't do your job. Got rewarded there.'
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After the first two periods, and the fact the Wild have scored a league-low 2.24 goals per game since Jan. 9, one wondered if a goal would ever come.
'I mean, what are you gonna do?' Boldy said. 'Yeah, you're down a goal, you're not gonna sit there and pout. That's the nature of life. Stuff goes wrong, you step up and you work harder, you put your head down and find ways to to create a positive, score a goal, whatever it is. We're not a group that pouts in here and that sits and gets all sad and stuff when things aren't going our way. We put our heads down and go to work.'
Hinostroza redirected Middleton's point shot early in the third period for his fifth goal in 21 games to tie the score.
Then adversity hit a couple times.
First, the Devils thought they regained their one-goal lead 30 seconds later when Brett Pesce took a harmless-looking shot along the wall that Gustavsson hit with his blocker. It popped up in the air and hovered over top of him. But the puck fell onto his back and he reacted by pressing his glove there and leaning on the crossbar to stop his momentum and keep the puck from completely crossing the goal line. The NHL Situation Room reviewed the play and agreed with the on-ice officials that the puck didn't go over the line.
PESCE call on ice NO GOAL #NJDevils pic.twitter.com/GUSqHzUz2j
— Devils Joint (@DevilsJointX) April 1, 2025
Gustavsson credited teammate Zach Bogosian for communicating with him and telling him where the puck was going.
'It was better that I saved that,' Gustavsson quipped. 'Otherwise it would have been a bad goal.'
Referees reviewed this Devils no goal, it's on Gustavsson's back and he reaches his arm back to stop it. Still no goal on review pic.twitter.com/XyprpqSl8T
— CJ Fogler 🫡 (@cjzero) April 1, 2025
Regardless, 6 ½ minutes later, the Wild iced the puck. On the ensuing draw, Justin Brazeau gained possession and was about to skate the puck into the neutral zone when Luke Hughes, who scored New Jersey's first goal, stole the puck from the Wild winger just inside the blue line. Moments later, Stefan Noesen set up Hischier for his fourth goal in three days against the Wild.
Luckily for Brazeau, Boldy bailed him out at the end.
Nico 4 – Minnesota 3 pic.twitter.com/cZvbIh38bL
— New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) April 1, 2025
'Little things make a big difference,' Hynes said. 'But fortunately we were able to rebound and get the tying goal and at least get it to overtime and then try to give ourselves another chance. So those are situational awareness things we got to be sharp. You see this time of year, throw an icing, and they put out the fresh top line. The objective's got to be make sure that we can win the faceoff, get out of the zone, live to fight another day. So we'll take the lesson out of that one.'
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The Devils thought they scored the winner in overtime when Hischier set up Paul Cotter, but after the goal, the NHL Situation Room initiated an offside review and the replay showed Hughes' pass barely left the attacking zone before Hischier played it back in. But in the shootout, Cotter and Jesper Bratt scored as the Wild fell to 1-3-1 in their past five heading into Wednesday's game against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
But after the way the Wild played two nights earlier to the Devils, they left the arena feeling a lot better about themselves as they continue to buy time for the hopeful returns next week of Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek.
'Since I've been here, that last game was probably one of the ones that was probably the worst for our team. playing to our identity and stuff,' Hinostroza said. 'I think everyone agreed that we really didn't do it and our compete just wasn't there, so obviously we wanted to come today and play more like ourselves. And I feel like for the most part we did do that.'
(Photo of Matt Boldy's equalizer: Elsa / Getty Images)