February 8, 2025; St. Paul, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Wild forward Marcus Foligno (17) celebrates scoring an empty-net goal against the New York Islanders during the third period at Xcel Energy Center. Mandatory Credit: Nick Wosika-Imagn Image Nick Foligno is ready to make his home ice debut for the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night against the Utah Mammoth.
The 38-year-old veteran admitted he may remain with his younger brother and new teammate Marcus Foligno, 34, while he adjusts to his new team. But don’t expect that to be the case for long.
“I’ll take my place. He’s got his family,” said Nick Foligno, whom the Wild acquired from the Chicago Blackhawks last Friday. “I’m sure I’ll miss my nephews more than I’ll miss Marcus anyway.
“But I’ll go there and babysit you a few times.”
Uncle Nick has a few things to take care of before he starts his shift.
Minnesota begins a four-game homestand starting with a game against Utah in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Wild have scored at least one point in each of their last three games and lost 3-2 against the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday.
Wild coach John Hines said he would like to see more of the same from his players, who have a 2-0-1 record in their last three contests.
“I wish we could have taken two points, but I like the week we had,” Hynes said after the latest game. “We had Tampa, we had Vegas, we had (Colorado). I thought we played all three games on ice that gave us a chance to win. We got 5 out of 6.
“I think certain parts of our game have been tested and we can learn from them, but I think there are a lot of parts of our game that we thought were really strong against really strong opponents.”
Utah gets some time off after losing 3-2 in overtime to the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday night. Dylan Guenther and Barrett Hayton each had one goal for Mammoth.
Utah has scored at least one point in each of its last four games. The team is 3-0-1 during that span and has outscored opponents 13-9.
Mammoth coach Andre Tourini said his team was happy to get a point in Chicago.
“It’s huge,” Tourigny said. “I think that’s the point. We weren’t on our ‘A’ game, but we found a way to get a point on the road. Now we have a big game (Tuesday) and we need to get more points.”
Both teams are in playoff positions.
The Wild (85 points) is in 3rd place in the Central Division. The Mammoths (73 points) are 1st in the Western Conference wild card, 6 points higher than the 2nd place wild card team, the Seattle Kraken.
Minnesota is expected to start Filip Gustavsson in goal on Tuesday. He is 23-10-6 with a 2.53 goals-against average and .911 save percentage this season, and is 1-2-0 with a 4.29 GAA and .862 save percentage against the Mammoths.
Utah will likely turn to Karel Vejmelka in net one night when Vitek Vanecek starts against the Blackhawks. Vejmelka is 30-16-2, 2.64 GAA and .899 save percentage this season and is 8-3-1, 2.49 GAA and .918 save percentage in 13 career games with Minnesota.
This game will be the third and final game between the teams in the regular season. Utah won the first two games of the series, 6-2 on the road on October 25 and 5-2 on the road on February 27 in Salt Lake City.
-Field level media
