Stanzel’s Sports Takeout — BREAKING NEWS: 2.24.25

Feb 24

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Incredible week of Girls State Tournament hockey at The X. Both championship games went to overtime. Congrats to Dodge County and Hill-Murray. As a friend of mine said, “feels weird rooting for H-M” (they beat Edina). Boys section finals are this week, a better week of hockey than the State Tourney for me.

One-year-old Johnny Gaudreau will never know his father, but it was an amazing moment at Nationwide Arena with the entire crowd singing him happy birthday.

Wolves to-be-owner Alex Rodriguez sank a half court shot to win a Bucknell student $10,000.

Twins are 1-1 in exhibition play. Today’s 12 p.m. game against Tampa Bay is free on TwinsTV, the new streaming platform (note it’s a Tampa Bay broadcast).

February seems early for outdoor soccer; the Loons fell 1-0 at LAFC in their season-opener. They host Montreal on Saturday in their home opener. At least it’s been warmer.

Wolves Start Slow Sans Gobert, Lose to OKC

Wolves fans love to pick on Rudy Gobert, but this team sure looks different without him in the lineup. Minnesota had its second straight woeful start as Gobert continues to be hobbled by back spasms, and Oklahoma City went on to a 130-123 win in a game that was there for the taking by the Wolves.

A game after giving up 48 points in the first quarter, the Wolves allowed OKC 72 percent shooting in the first quarter, 56 percent for the game, and 54 percent from 3-point range.

Now if the Wolves weren’t also without two other starters, it would be easier to make up for Gobert’s absence. But they’ve got to turn things around quickly, as the Wolves travel to OKC tonight to finish the home-and-home. This is the third game out of four they’ll have played the West-leading Thunder. The Wolves are one of four teams separated by 1.5 games for sixth through ninth in the West.

Wild Storms Back to Beat Red Wing after 4 Nations Break

There was some ugly hockey with teams coming off the two-week 4 Nations break this weekend. But the final seven minutes of regulation and overtime were sweet for the Wild, which rallied from a two-goal deficit for a 4-3 win at Detroit in a rare (for the Wild) matinee that started at 11:30 a.m. body time.

Matt Boldy and Marcus Foligno scored in the third period, and Matt Boldy came out of the penalty box to score the winner with 85 seconds left in overtime. How about Brock Faber? While most of his teammates vacationed, he followed up a 28:50 TOI game in the 4 Nations Final with 30:05 against Detroit.

Off the ice the news was not as good for the Wild; Bill Guerin told KFAN this week that Kirill Kaprizov will be out longer than originaly expected (a month, which would have been up in early March).

The Wild has a busy week with four games, including a Tuesday rematch with the Red Wings at The X.

Gopher Hockey

A sweep of Ohio State puts the Gopher men in position to control their own destiny in the final week of the Big 10 season. But it won’t be easy. Minnesota visits Penn State (7-1-2 in its last 10) in the last B10 series. The Gophers are two points ahead of MIchigan State, who have a much easier road playing Notre Dame. The Irish are 13 points behind the next-to-last place team in the Big 10.

Abbey Murphy scored on senior night and freshman goalie Hannah Clark made 22 saves as the Gophers swept UMD at Ridder, securing the WCHA’s third seed and a first-round WCHA matchup with Minnesota State this weekend in Minneapolis. The Gophers went 4-0-0 against the Mavericks with a 24-9 goal advantage. It’s hard not to see a Gopher/Buckeye semiefinal matchup March 6 in the WCHA’s Final Faceoff in Duluth - first time in recent memory it hasn’t been at RIdder which has a built in audience with the Gophers in it every year.

Gopher Hoops

The Gopher men flew high into Saturday’s return to Williams Arena after two wins in Southern California, but fell 69-60 to Penn State. Minnesota hosts Northwestern on Tuesday.

The Gopher women will have had a week off by the time they host Washington on Wednesday.

Frost Loses in Rare Home Game

The Frost lost 2-1 to Toronto yesterday in the team’s only February home game. And now they go another 29 days without a home game (March 25) as they play nine of 10 games away from Xcel Energy Center. Minnesota is now under the .500 mark and has dropped to fourth in the PWHL.

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