Stanzel’s Sports Takeout — BREAKING TAKEOUT NEWS: 2-24-23.
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Goal of the Girls Tourney so far, as South St. Paul’s Sarah Wincentsen scores the game’s lone goal after 70 scoreless minutes to lift the Packers over Fergus Falls. SSP plays Warroad, a 15-1 winner in round one, today.
Fleury Back in Form as Wild Tops Jackets
He’s not going to take his former No. 1 netminder role back anytime soon, but the Wild must have breathed a big sigh of relief as Marc-Andre Fleury posted his 73rd career shutout last night in a 2-0 road win over cellar dwelling Columbus.
The Wild was good early - first-period goals from Brandon Duhaime and Kirill Kaprizov - but pedestrian for the next two periods. They gave up 70 shot attempts, and won just 17-of-52 faceoffs. However, Fleury was outstanding.
Minnesota was left for dead a couple weeks ago, but is suddenly back in third in the Central and just three points behind first-place Dallas when the teams hit the QUARTER POLE this weekend.
The Wild won despite playing without Jonas Brodin, who’s to be given at least four games off while dealing with a nagging injury. Jon Merrill was also out sick, meaning Calen Addison at least briefly escaped Dean Evason’s doghouse.
It’ll be a quick night for the Wild, which will fly even further East to Toronto, clear customs and get some sleep before tonight’s tilt with the Maple Leafs.
Speaking of Toronto, the Wild made news earlier in the week for playing “banker” and taking on some of Ryan O’Reilly’s salary in a three-team trade. They did the same yesterday, giving up some cap space for a fifth-round pick in part of a Dmitry Orlov trade from Washington to Boston. Teams only get three of these cap trades, so with the deadline a week from today, it’d be hard to think Bill Guerin would do it again until then.
I’m on team “no” to a Patrick Kane trade…although it appears he’d rather go other places like the Rangers.
Gopher Women Begin WCHA; Men Cling to No. 1 in Pairwise
The Gopher women open up the WCHA Tournament with a best-of-three against St. Thomas tonight and tomorrow afternoon at Ridder. The Tommies did take the Gophers to OT once last weekend, but Minnesota is an overwhelming favorite to advance to the next weekend’s Frozen Faceoff. Taylor Heise and Grace Zumwinkle made the WCHA’s First Team yesterday, while Abigail Boreen, Abbey Murphy and Skylar Vetter made the third team. Murphy, and probably Vetter, deserved better.
The Gopher men don’t have Big 10 seeding to play for, but are currently No. 1 in the Pairwise and would like to hold onto that as they head into their final conference series against Ohio State. The Buckeyes got to town late yesterday due to the winter storm.
Gopher BB
Eleven straight losses for Minnesota, including Wednesday’s 18-point defeat in Maryland. They end a three-game road trip in Nebraska tomorrow. The women have lost eight of nine heading into Sunday’s regular season conference finale, a home game versus Purdue.
This Weekend
The Wolves return from the All-Star Break tonight when they host Charlotte.
The Loons begin their season at FC Dallas on Saturday.
The Twins start spring training games Saturday with split squad tilts against Tampa and Baltimore.
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