The last thing the Minnesota Wild can afford to do is play a stupid brand of hockey. That's about as literal as it gets; the Wild are up against the best team in hockey and have a legitimate shot at beating them in the playoffs but the fast lane to a quick exit is paved in dumb moves.
Marcus Foligno almost tripped his own team into that trap in Game 3. He took a penalty that led to a Colorado Avalanche goal that interrupted what was an otherwise dominant performance by Minnesota.
In the second period Foligno took a penalty after cross-checking Nathan MacKinnon on a play that TNT studio analyst Paul Bissonnette wasn't a big fan of. It wasn't just the boneheaded hit that gave the Avs a power play, but the potential game-changing nature of the penalty.
Foligno's penalty gave the Avs a chance to score on the power play, cutting into a three-goal lead the Wild had mounted and potentially opening the floodgates of a comeback. Minnesota scored almost right away to negate the mistake, but that didn't stop Biz from lighting Foligno up during the intermission report.
"I love Marcus Foligno and what he brings to this lineup as far as aggressiveness," Biz said. "There’s no reason in that situation to take that penalty and give [the Avs] an opportunity to get back in this game. Luckily for Minnesota they came back and struck right away but at this point it’s 3-1 and they’re kind of back in the game. They get a little bit of confidence going, but I guess I would have to imagine [Foligno] wanted his line of flesh. "
The pound of flesh he was referencing goes back to how MacKinnon was "flying around" in the previous game taking shots at Matt Boldy and Quinn Hughes. Anson Carter made a point to mention that he felt Avs players were going out of their way to target Hughes, which furthers the point that Foligno was essentially hunting Colorado's star to send a message.
It wasn't exactly unjust, but it was still unsmart, which is something the Wild can't afford. We've seen the Avs flip a period and a game on a dime, and giving a team as talented as Colorado any sort of opportunity to break through is playing with fire.
Minnesota has been burned over the first two games of this series, and Foligno almost let them back into Game 3 at the wrong time. Thankfully Brock Faber helped the Wild counter the Colorado goal less than 30 seconds later, negating the mistake that Foligno made. It's a thin margin for error, though, which is a lesson the Wild need to learn after thankfully getting away with one.
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