Stanzel’s Sports Takeout — BREAKING NEWS: 3.3.25

Mar 3

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Boys state hockey Wednesday through Saturday at The X. Edina as a five seed has a weird feel.

Kelvin Yeboah is headed into ANT/Kaprizov territory; the Loons youngster scored in the team’s 1-0 home opener win over Montreal. The Ghana native scored nine goals in just 12 games for Minnesota last season; nine goals in 12 games was the whole team’s output from time to time the last few seasons.

Wolves Get Needed Win in Phoenix

Should the defending Western Conference finalist Wolves return to the playoffs - or at least the play-in round - it could be all because of last night’s 116-98 win at Phoenix to complete a four-game road trip at 2-2. Should they have lost, they’d be just 2.5 games up on the 11th-place. Instead, they’re 4.5 games up, in eighth place but in a virtual tie for sixth.

Anthony Edwards, tossed from Thursday’s game and banned from Friday’s because he’s got a potty mouth, erupted for 44 points, and Julius Randle returned from a month-long injury absence to score 20 points. Donte DiVincenzo scored 24 points in his third game back. Rudy Gobert is expected back soon. It’s put up or shut up time for a team that hasn’t been fully healthy in two months.

Minnesota hosts the Sixers on Tuesday. Philadelphia is just two games back of the play-in round out East despite losing nine of 10 and being 17 games below the .500 mark.

Wild Acquires Nyquist, Grinds Out 1-0 Win

The Wild began trade deadline week with an old face reacquired, and a gritty win they hope is going to be a trademark over the next month-plus.

Minnesota beat Boston 1-0 in a snoozefest matinee - the other two games of the TNT tripleheader were offensive explosions - getting a goal that Freddie Gaudreau banked in off his breezers, and Filip Gustavsson’s fourth shutout of the season (28 saves).

It’s a new identity for the Wild, who acquired former player Gustav Nyquist (the only NHL player to have a Kentucky Derby winner named after him) from Nashville for a second-round pick. The Wild, already without Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson-Ek for most of the rest of the regular season, also announced rockstar blueliner Jonas Brodin is week-to-week. Nyquist will be a key cog as John Hynes’ staff tries to turn the woeful penalty kill around.

Bill Guerin does not have a lot of financial freedom ahead of Friday’s trade deadline (can’t wait to not write that sentence any more next season). You’ll hear a lot of “our best three players coming back are our trade acquisition”, but Guerin is sneaky and I’d expect at least one move that surprises you a little bit.

The Wild is right back out on the road for two beginning Tuesday in Utah, before a seven-game homestand. Remember, the Wild is barely a .500 home team.

Gopher Hockey

The Gopher men achieved a share of the Big 10 regular season title, but had they been on the other end of a 4-3 OT loss to Penn State on Friday, they’d have the championship solo. It may be okay though, as a lot of coaches don’t want a first-round bye this time of year. So instead the Gophers will play Notre Dame (four conference wins all season) at Mariucci in a best-of-three this weekend, before the one-game semifinals and championship round. The Big 10 reseeds after the first round. And we’ll see how Michigan State does in those one-game playoffs after taking a week off.

It was a little tougher than expected, but the Gopher women outlasted St. Cloud State in three games to advance to the WCHA’s Final Faceoff. Minnesota will take on Ohio State on Friday, with the winner taking on Wisconsin or UMD (so Wisconsin) in Saturday’s finale with the conference’s at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament at stake (spoiler alert, all three are going regardless). Minnesota lost a double OT game on Saturday against the Huskies putting the Final Faceoff in peril, but they routed SCSU 6-2 Sunday to advance.

Gopher Hoops

It’s far from a lock, but the Gophers’ 67-65 win over Nebraska on Saturday inched them closer to a Big 10 Tournament berth. “Only” 15 of the conference’s 18 teams make the Indianapolis tournament. The Gophers have a tough game Wednesday at home against Wisconsin, while Sunday’s game at Rutgers could very well wind up as a sort of play-in game for the B10 Tourney.

The Gopher women lost seven of their last nine regular season games, but the strong start in conference play got them into the Big 10 Tournament. They draw a red-hot Washington team (four straight wins) Wednesday in the B10 opener at 2:30 p.m. in Indianapolis.

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