ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Wild won home-ice advantage for the first round of the playoffs but lost a key player.
Marcus Foligno left injured after getting kneed by the Avalanche's Kurtis MacDermid, an ominous exit that loomed over an edgy regular-season finale, but the Wild prevailed 4-1 on Friday in front of 19,261 at Xcel Energy Center to put an exclamation point on the fact it will host Game 1 of its Western Conference playoff series against the Blues.
A St. Louis loss earlier in the evening clinched that for the Wild, which locked up second place in the Central Division with a franchise-high 113 points. But the team's lineup for the playoff opener is to be determined.
