Marcus Foligno calls on officials to stop fight after bloodying opponent
Marcus Foligno was a very busy man in the Minnesota Wild's 6-2 pounding of the San Jose Sharks Monday night. Foligno managed a goal, an assist and a fighting major for the third Gordie Howe hattrick of his career and the Minnesota Wild are rolling right now as the victory over San Jose marked their third win in a row.
Late in the first period, Foligno and Nikolai Knyzhov, who was playing in just his 20th NHL game, decided to drop the gloves. Foligno landed two very hard punches to Knyzhov's head, causing blood to flow. It was at that point that you can see him ask officials to step in and end the bout. Check it out:
Foligno bloodied Knyzhov badly enough that he called for the linesman to stop the fight and skated away pic.twitter.com/MeJ3rAw369— CJ Fogler #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) February 23, 2021
«I know he's a young kid and probably didn't know the fighting aspect of it, so I thought it was enough,» Foligno told The Athletic. «You know, good on him. I give him a lot of credit. I think there's things you do when you're young to answer the bell, and you have to do it and you gain a lot of respect from your teammates. So I'm sure he got that tonight, but it's just something that there's no point and move on. I thought it was over after the couple punches. So, that's all. I've had guys let up on me before and it's just kind of the respect code of the whole thing."
Everyone loves a fight but it's also great to see a veteran like Foligno respect his opponent enough to know when the battle needs to be called so Knyzhov doesn't suffer any serious damage.
Foligno's assist came with just over three minutes gone in the second on a goal by Ian Cole, while his goal that completed the Howe hatttrick came just after the mid-way point of the second.
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Mikko Rantanen | 1 | 3 | 4 | |
| Jake Debrusk | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Dylan Guenther | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Ivan Barbashev | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Jack Eichel | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Brock Nelson | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Valeri Nichushkin | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Clayton Keller | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Anthony Cirelli | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Jonathan Drouin | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Roman Josi | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Kirill Marchenko | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Kyle Palmieri | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Sebastian Aho | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Rasmus Dahlin | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Leon Draisaitl | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Matt Duchene | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Samuel Girard | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Claude Giroux | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Oliver Kylington | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 21 | 17 | 4 | - | 34 | |
Wild | 20 | 13 | 3 | 4 | 30 | |
Devils | 23 | 14 | 7 | 2 | 30 | |
Hurricanes | 20 | 14 | 5 | 1 | 29 | |
Golden Knights | 21 | 13 | 6 | 2 | 28 | |
Capitals | 20 | 13 | 6 | 1 | 27 | |
Flames | 21 | 12 | 6 | 3 | 27 | |
Stars | 19 | 13 | 6 | - | 26 | |
Maple Leafs | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Rangers | 19 | 12 | 6 | 1 | 25 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||