Wild's Marcus Foligno reaches career high in points with an 'A' on his chest

DETROIT — Marcus Foligno keeps making the best season of his NHL career even better.

After a three-point effort Tuesday in the Wild's 5-2 win over the Rangers, Foligno exceeded 30 points for the first time, and this uptick in production has coincided with another change for him this season: the "A" he wears on his Wild jersey as one of the team's alternate captains.

"When you're wanted and you are counted on, you get a lot of confidence from it and I feel like that's helped out my game," said Foligno, who was named to the role along with defenseman Matt Dumba after former alternate captains Zach Parise and Ryan Suter had their contracts bought out last offseason. "I'm a proud player. I take a lot of responsibility, and I want everyone to do well. The leadership qualities and all that stuff, I want. But you've got to be able to bring it every night."

Although the overlap is eye-catching, Foligno's new title and offensive surge may not be directly correlated.

The 30-year-old winger was already trending toward a breakout after scoring 11 goals last season and racking up a then career-best 26 points in only 39 games. But his increased impact sure looks like a reflection of his leadership when he has a performance like he did against the Rangers, which came on the heels of Foligno putting responsibility on himself to help the team out of its recent slump.

"I really do believe the last two weeks wasn't my greatest games, and it showed on a team standpoint," said Foligno, who had one goal in his previous 12 appearances before facing the Rangers. "[Tuesday] was a good response. We got a win, and it's a much better game for myself. That's how I have to be. I take a lot of pride in showing up every night for the guys."

Forwards Kevin Fiala and Matt Boldy have created plenty of offense for the Wild since Boldy joined the team in January from the minors, but the duo hadn't teamed up for a power-play goal until Tuesday.

"It was a great pass from him," Fiala said of Boldy, who found a wide-open Fiala at the back post in the second period. "He just recognized that I was open there for an open net, and we have a great chemistry. So it's nice to have him on the same unit."

Before then, Boldy had been included in the Wild's other power-play group that featured the likes of Kirill Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello. But after the power play had converted just once in its previous seven games, the Wild mixed up its units by having Boldy and center Ryan Hartman switch spots.

"We just wanted a different look," coach Dean Evason said. "But they committed to doing what we asked them as far as getting inside. Kevin could have stayed outside the dots. [Instead he] came to the net. We got a bounce and a good play and scored the goal."

For just the 11th time in Wild history, the team wasn't whistled for a penalty against New York.

The last time that happened was April 24, 2021, at San Jose.

"If we can do that every night, that'd be great," Evason said.

Overall, only one penalty was called Tuesday (a tripping minor by the Rangers' Patrik Nemeth in the second period), but it looked like New York forward Mika Zibanejad hooked Zuccarello before Zibanejad scored shorthanded to tie the game at 2.

Evason said the explanation the Wild received was that Zibanejad made a "stick on stick" play.

"He got the stick," Evason said, "but when you get the stick and body, you call it a can-opener. He flips him."

The non-call, however, didn't haunt the Wild; the team responded with Fiala's power-play goal only 1 minute, 6 seconds later.

"It was just a good response," Foligno said. "We needed that."