FOX Sports North Midweek Stock Report for Feb. 17

Every Wednesday, FOX Sports North takes a look at which athletes' stock is trending up and whose is trending down.

In other words, who is making a meteoric rise, and who is quickly plummeting.

With that in mind, let's "take stock" of the current sports scene in North, shall we?

Minnesota Wild: Firing a coach obviously is never optimal, as it means things have not been going well. But when a new coach comes in, it often breathes life into a team. It was only one game, but the Wild won in the debut of interim head coach John Torchetti -- but it was the team's first victory since Dec. 26 and perhaps will light a spark.

Zach LaVine, Timberwolves guard: The athletic guard became just the fourth player to win back-to-back slam dunk titles (and first in five years) and also took home the MVP of the Rising Stars game. And kudos to LaVine for dedicating his dunk win to Flip Saunders. All around a good weekend for LaVine.

Rachel Banham, Gophers guard: With a 60-point game under her belt, Banham's next feat of greatness was a buzzer-beating game-winning 3-pointer. Oh, and she received tweets from Kobe Bryant after each. What can she do for an encore?

Minnesota Gophers men's basketball team: The bad news is that Minnesota's losing streak reached 14 games and the Gophers are now 0-13 in the Big Ten. The good news is that at least the two losses last week were close and Rutgers (also 0-13 in the conference) is on the schedule for two of the final five regular-season games.

Marco Scandella, Wild defenseman: Scandella hasn't registered a point in eight straight games and hasn't notched a goal in two months. He took seven shots last week in three games, failing to score, and was a minus-2.

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