Stanzel’s Sports Takeout — BREAKING TAKEOUT NEWS: 2-27-23.
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Warroad and Gentry Academy win the Girls State Hockey Tournament. Boys section finals this week - “The Tourney” gets the headlines but this section final week is a blast.
NASCAR season is in full swing…
Wild on Heels of Dallas after Another Thriller
Kirill Kaprizov, Anthony Edwards and Justin Jefferson will long be mentioned in the same breath. They all broke into their respective leagues at similar times, and have been the subject of countless “who would you rather have” polls on Twitter.
I’m here to tell you, it’s Kirill Kaprizov. The man they call “The Thrill” scored all three Wild goals yesterday, including the winner late in overtime, as Minnesota stormed from two goals back for a 3-2 win over Columbus.
The Wild, left for dead a couple weeks ago by many including yours truly, hit the season’s QUARTER POLE yesterday just two games back of Central leading Dallas. More importantly, they’re six points ahead of “out of the playoffs”.
Jefferson can take over a game if his QB can get him the ball. Anthony Edwards has star quality but consistency still isn’t there. Kaprizov is a bonafide superstar, a top 10 forward in a star-laden league.
He scores goals most others can’t - here’s his OT game-winner from a back-from-purgatory Calen Addison.
According to the NHL, Kaprizov is just the fifth player in NHL history to score the third goal of a natural hat trick (three straight goals in the game) in overtime, joining Thomas Vanek and Neal Broten among others.
Now, this is what seems to always happen to the Wild. They get hot right before the trade deadline, perhaps giving a little more oomph to their general manager to make a move. Remember the Martin Hanzal trade? Most of the big difference makers are off the board already in advance of Friday’s deadline. We’ll see what Billy G. does.
The Wild hosts the Islanders Tuesday before heading to Western Canada for a couple games. Could Burnsville’s Brock Boeser just cross the arena in Vancouver on Thursday and meet new teammates in the Wild locker room? He won’t be a Canuck Saturday, I’ll tell you that.
Wolves With Two Bad Losses Coming out of All-Star Break
It’d be hard to find a worse way to lose than an absolute stinker of an eight-point home loss to Charlotte on Friday. That was before the Wolves coughed up a 10-point fourth quarter lead at Golden State, wasting a career-high night from Naz Reid and not taking advantage of a Warriors team playing without Steph Curry and Draymond Green. The result? A 109-104 loss that allowed Golden State to overtake them in the Western Conference standings.
If the Wolves are stuck in the play-in round, or worse yet, sitting at home come late April, they’ll need to look no further than last night. Up big early, then in a tussle most of the game. Naz Reid was awesome - 30 points and the Warriors had no matchup for him. But once Minnesota fell behind in the fourth, their weaknesses shown bright.
Anthony Edwards missed 14 of his 19 shots. Jordan McLaughlin rushed a 3-pointer late after a couple Warriors turnovers let the Wolves stick around. Edwards struggling or not, J-Mac doesn’t need to be shooting a game-tying 3-pointer in the last 30 seconds.
The Wolves hit 11-of-21 free throws! Barely 50 percent. Luka Garza was 5-for-5; the rest of the team 6-for-16.
This thing could spiral out of control quickly, too. Last night’s game began a four-game California road trip that includes a resurgent Lakers team.
Gopher Hockey
The Gopher men concluded their regular season by sweeping No. 7 Ohio State by a combined 9-2 margin. Minnesota lost just four conference games all year and will relax for a week while other teams beat each other up in a best-of-three. They’ll return to Mariucci March 11 for a single elimination semifinal game against the lowest remaining seed, with a Big 10 championship game set for March 18, potentially also on the U’s campus.
The Gopher women roughed up St. Thomas twice - although Saturday’s game was tied midway through the second period. It’ll be Ohio State, Minnesota, Wisconsin and UMD in the WCHA’s Final Faceoff this weekend. Minnesota and Wisconsin play the 5 p.m. game on Friday. All four are possible Elite Eight participants, so get on down to Ridder for some high echelon women’s hockey.
Twins Begin Spring Training Play
The results don’t matter at all, but it was nice turning on WCCO Radio Saturday afternoon and hearing Twins baseball back on the air. Spring is almost here.
It was also good to see Kenta Maeda back on the mound - he hadn’t thrown a pitch in 18 months but is hoping to be in this rotation on day one. Some pitchers round back into shape - not Jhoan Duran who threw four pitches over 101 mph in relief.
There will be some learning curves about the new rules in MLB this year (explained here last week in Make Glove not W.A.R.). The absolute worst case scenario came about on day one. Tie game with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth. Full count, and the batter wasn’t in the box in time, leading to an automatic strike and the inning being over.
Loons 1-0
No Emanuel Reynoso? No problem. The Loons are off to a 1-0 start thanks to a 1-0 win at FC Dallas on Saturday. Ménder García gave Adrian Heath’s crew all the offense they needed.
The rest of the second half saw a prevent defense that even Jacques Lemaire would have been proud of.
How’s the weather looking for March 11? It’s the Loons’ home opener against Red Bull NY.
Gopher Hoops
The Dennis Evans era is over before it started, as Ben Johnson’s prize recruit told the world he wouldn’t be coming to the Gophers a day before they lost by 11 at Nebraska to drop to 1-16. How long does Johnson get? He deserves a couple years recruiting, for sure, and his teams play hard. But in the land of NIL, the Gophers aren’t ever going to be able to “pay” what bigger, typical college markets get for their players. They’ve got Rutgers and Wisconsin at home this week to end the regular season.
The women earned a big 77-69 win over Purdue - the Gophers’ first Big 10 win this season over a team with a winning record. Lindsey Whalen, too, has to be considered on the hotseat. This year’s incoming freshman class was good, and she promises another. The Gophers open up Big 10 Tournament play at Target Center Wednesday at 1 against Penn State. They’ll play Michigan early Thursday afternoon if they win.
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