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Georgia and TCU tonight for the CFP Championship.

Wild Card Weekend: Vikings/Giants in Christmas Eve Rematch

It will be a Christmas Eve rematch in the New Year with higher stakes. The Vikings will host the Giants on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. hoping for a similar result as when Greg Joseph’s 64-yard field goal lifted them to the last second 27-24 victory. The last time these teams met in the post-season? 41-donut in the 2000 NFC Championship Game.

This is a fascinating matchup for a variety of reasons besides them being my two favorite teams. Without a doubt, each of these two teams - their fanbases leading the way - thinks the other is overrated. The Giants have no qualms playing the Vikings knowing they were without several regulars, made a handful of errors and still almost won Dec. 24. One Giants player said he thought U.S. Bank Stadium would have been louder.

Similarly, the Vikings see the Giants as a team that achieved much of what it did this season with smoke and mirrors. Yes, you respect any opponent. But each of these teams completely wanted to play the other in the playoffs. Vegas sees it as a toss up - the Vikings opened as three point favorites (three points are standard for home field advantage).

The Vikings’ 29-13 win at Chicago on Sunday? It wound up not mattering, as expected. It did to the Bears, only because they now hold the No. 1 overall pick in the Draft. (Time for a draft lottery in the NFL by the way). The Vikings escaped relatively unscathed - Dalvin Cook went quickly for medical attention early in the game. By and large, Minnesota rode Alexander Mattison after, and Kirk Cousins didn’t play in the second half.

Full preview coming later in the week but this playoff game rests squarely on the shoulders of the Vikings’ offensive line, and its defense as a whole. The defense allowed the 31st most (out of 32 teams) yards this season. Do you trust Greg Joseph to make a big kick in the playoffs? He missed an extra point Sunday.

Other Wild Card Weekend matchups:

Dolphins at Bills
Ravens at Bengals
Chargers at Jaguars
Seahawks at 49ers (Packers imploded against a Lions team with nothing to play for)
Cowboys at Bucs

Wild Loses in Different Fashions

Saturday the Wild lost a track meet type game in Buffalo, 6-5 in overtime, then returned home shorthanded Sunday and couldn’t solve Blues backup goalie Thomas Greiss in a 3-0 loss.

Last night the Wild played without injured Mats Zuccarello and the sick Jordan Greenway. They skated 11 forwards instead of 12 and at one point were down to nine due to Ryan Hartman and Joel Eriksson Ek leaving with minor injuries (both returned). This is another situation where the buyouts hurt you - because they don’t just keep a spare forward around in case of emergency.

The Wild got its act together in the third - outshooting the Blues 17-3 at one point, but Greiss, who entered the game with a goals against average of 3.55, didn’t allow a goal. Worse yet was he was fighting the puck all night, but the Wild got no traffic in front of him or shots through said traffic in the opening 40 minutes.

Filip Gustavsson, who puked his guts out during the Tampa Bay win, returned for Sunday’s game. Marc-Andre Fleury, who fell on the sword after allowing six goals in Buffalo, is away from the team due to personal reasons back home in Montreal. He’s expected to be available Tuesday in New York against the Rangers.

Wolves Win Fourth Straight

The Wolves stormed back from 20 points down against the NBA’s worst team last night, beating the Rockets 104-96 in Houston for their fourth straight win.

The Rockets have only 10 wins, but the Wolves could have packed this one in. Is Taurean Prince one of the most underrated players in the NBA? Probably. Fourteen points off the bench for the Wolves. D-Lo had 22 points and ANT had 21, while Rudy Gobert had a double double and held down Rockets big man Alperen Sengun in the second half.

Per Wolves radio, it marked just the Wolves’ third win in the last 12 years when trailing by 20 points.

The Wolves are in Detroit on Wednesday.

Gopher Hockey

The old WCHA was back - sort of - as the Gophers and St. Cloud State Huskies split a weekend home-and-home. The crowds seemed enthused enough - though I have to ask myself and you, does this series mean a lot more to the Huskies than it does the Gophers? Minnesota fans constantly tell me “blah blah, the WCHA” yet it’s just the vocal Husky fans I hear this weekend.

Logan Cooley, playing his ninth game in 13 days, returned from a brilliant World Juniors tournament and after getting held off the scoresheet in Saturday’s 3-0 SCSU shutout, scored the game-winner in a 2-1 OT win at Mariucci on Sunday.

The Gophers have only Big 10 action left, beginning this weekend in South Bend against Notre Dame.

On the women’s side, the Gophers hosted the East/West Showdown. Minnesota and St. Cloud faced off with Hockey East also rans UNH and Merrimack.

A couple things - we know the Gophers are a really good team (ranked fourth), and outscoring two overmatched foes 17-3 in a 22-hour span really doesnt tell us anything. However, St. Cloud State, which is no better than the fifth team in the WCHA, also dispatched of those two teams rather easily. So in the constant “which is best, the East or the West” battle of college hockey, it would lead you to believe as usual the WCHA could place three teams in the Frozen Four, again.

The Gophers will win their next four games (St. Thomas and Bemidji) before playing UMD, Ohio State and Wisconsin three straight weekends. So let’s take some time just to marvel at the makeup of this team. Why are they better than recent Gopher teams? Their third line features the reigning WCHA Freshman of the Year and an Olympian. It would be the first line on at least half of the other teams in the NCAA. The Taylor Heise and Grace Zumwinkle lines get all the headlines, but it’s the depth that will really make a difference come March. Consider this - the Gophers had so much depth up front that their No. 2 center to start the season (Emily Oden) is now playing defense.

Zumwinkle had six points (2 goals, 4 assists) Saturday and netted her 100th career goal.

Skate with the Gopher women Saturday post-game by the way (2 p.m. faceoff against St. Thomas).

Gopher BB

The Gophers let their first potential Big 10 win slip away, taking Nebraska to overtime at home before eventually falling 81-79. Jamison Battle led the way for Minnesota with 20 points, while Dawson Garcia had his first double double of the season (19 points, 15 rebounds). The Gophers led by six at the half in a game that saw 15 lead changes. Minnesota (6-8, 0-4 in Big 10) play just once this week at Ohio State on Thursday.

The women dropped to 1-4 in the conference and 0-5 on the road with a slim 81-77 loss at Wisconsin. The Badgers won their first Big 10 game of the season by scoring the game’s last six points. As Kent Youngblood of the Star Tribune pointed out, Minnesota was outscored 27-13 in points off turnovers. Which will happen with a young team.. The Gophers host Rutgers on Thursday.

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