For Nick Foligno, there's a little unfinished business between him and his brother, Minnesota Wild forward Marcus Foligno.
"Yeah, I get to finally play him, so that's a nice feeling," the Chicago Blackhawks captain said Monday. "I let him have it last time. It's nice. Nice to be a part of it this time."
And he will be part of Round 2 of the Foligno Face-Off when the Blackhawks and Wild play at Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; FDSNWIX, FDSNNO, CHSN).
The Foligno Face-off teams the brothers with the Blackhawks, Wild, NHL, NHL Players' Association, and the V Foundation for Cancer Research through Hockey Fights Cancer for a season-long platform to raise funds for a very personal cause and celebrate the competitiveness between Marcus and Nick. They lost their mother, Janis, to breast cancer in 2009.
Nick missed the first game between the teams, Chicago's 4-3 overtime loss to Marcus and the Wild on Nov. 26, because of a left hand injury he sustained against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Nov. 15.
"It’ll be good to not have Nick in a leather jacket to come out for the ceremonial puck drop," Marcus said. "Again, it's an honor that the NHLPA and NHL has come together, and obviously the V Foundation chose us to kind of lead the hockey fight against cancer and to bring a fun rivalry to it too."
Marcus said more than $40,000 has been raised so far.
"I think people really appreciate what we're trying to do. We had a little fun with it (the first game), too, with the (Foligno Face-off) shirts," Nick said. "At the end of the day, we know there's a job to do on the ice. But if you can also do a little good off the ice and raise awareness for cancer research, and especially breast cancer research, it's our job as sons of a mother who unfortunately passed away to do that."
This also is the mom's trip for the Blackhawks (against the Wild on Tuesday and at the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday), and Foligno is bringing his aunt, Paula Theriualt, Janis' youngest sister. Paula and Janis are nieces of Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender Ed Giacomin, who died Sept. 15 at the age of 86.
"It's pretty special that she'll be a part of this game. She's meant a lot to me," Nick said of Paula. "It's a nice way to celebrate my mom, so yeah, pretty special to have her here. She makes me think of her, for sure. She was really excited, nervous, all the feelings (about coming on the trip)."
The Wild will be walking in alongside members of the community who are battling breast cancer or are survivors of breast cancer. There also will be a puck drop between Nick and Marcus. Paulie, the Minnesota Wild rescue dog, will be walking into the game wearing a Team Marcus shirt and Moose antlers as a tribute to Marcus' nickname.
The public is being asked to join the Foligno Face-off by donating $17 (they each wear No. 17), or whatever they can give, to breast cancer research through Hockey Fights Cancer and the V Foundation. Donations can be made here and 100 percent of funds will go to breast cancer research through the V Foundation in honor of Janis and all those affected by breast cancer.
The brothers, who are NHL Hockey Fights Cancer Champions this season, are scheduled to face each other two more times this season (March 17 and March 19). When they do, the campaign will channel their natural rivalry into a friendly competition that engages fans, drives awareness, and turns every head-to-head matchup into an opportunity to give back.
Each time, donors will pick between Team Nick or Team Marcus, and each donor will be entered to win a one-of-a-kind Hockey Fights Cancer jersey signed by both brothers, plus a signed puck from their team's Foligno.
And to keep things fun, there will be a consequence for the losing Foligno.
"That's always the worst part," Marcus said. "Last time he had to say a toast to me about how great of a brother I was at Thanksgiving dinner. We're thinking more along the lines tonight of maybe a little bit of 'Fear Factor.' Maybe you got to eat something gross or something like that. We're still in the works with it, but it'll definitely be confirmed by whoever wins and loses."
But with so much of the attention focused on the charity behind the Foligno Face-Off, there really won't be any loser.
"We feel so humble," Nick said. "We don't like to make things about us, so this is just a way of us being able to kind of keep our mom's name in memory but also do something great with what we've been affected by, and obviously [Sunday] with Hockey Fights Cancer (against the Florida Panthers), so many people are affected (by). It makes us feel good that everyone's jumped on board to help us."
NHL.com independent correspondent Jessi Pierce contributed to this report
