Stanzel’s Sports Takeout — BREAKING NEWS: 1.17.24
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Expecting a second straight snooze fest among NFL playoff games, save for maybe the Chiefs and Bills.
Fleury Passes Roy as Wild Romps over Islanders
A true feel good moment-finally-as Marc-Andre Fleury passed his idol Patrick Roy for second place in all-time NHL wins in a 5-0 win over the Islanders on Monday. Now the Islanders aren’t very good-or as my old friend Cal Clutterbuck put it “we f***ing suck”, but the Wild had fallen short against other similar teams recently.
I wasn’t a big proponent of the Wild trading for Fleury when they did. But, they didn’t give up much, he signed and you have to be convinced is the nicest hockey player of all-time. I have no doubt he’ll wind up back in Pittsburgh in some sort of front office capacity, but wouldn’t it be nice if he wanted to stay here?
The Wild opens up a three-game southestern swing tomorrow at Tampa Bay. They’re eight points back of a playoff spot. Bill Guerin assured media Tuesday that they were in this to make the playoffs. Craig Leipold isn’t the type to give up and have empty seats for a couple months. But with long-term money tied up to aging vets like Marcus Foligno and Ryan Hartman, what really is to do right now?
PWHL Minnesota Suffers First Loss
The Stanzel Jinx is real. The PWHL Minnesota team suffered its first loss-with me in attendance-although when I left they were ahead 2-1 before falling 3-2 in overtime. This league is great, especially in Minnesota. A very high level of play, obviously. I know the PWHL has to pay their bills, but three 2-minute timeouts per period for TV is a momentum killer in the arena. Love seeing thousands of screaming young girl hockey players. Also interesting for me as someone who watches quite a bit of women's hockey-in the PWHL you can hit someone as long as they have the puck. Some veterans definitely are still getting used to this. I watched Lee Stecklein got hit behind her own net and cough up the puck and just kind of shake her head like "oh yeah that can happen now."
Wolves in Detroit Tonight Looking for Third Straight
The Wolves have recovered from that OT loss in Boston with a pair of wins at home, including 109-105 over the Clippers on Sunday. As my daughter just told me reading over my shoulder “we BARELY won.”
Anthony Edwards scored 33 points and added nine rebounds and six assists. Karl-AnthonyTowns had 17 points, six rebounds and five assists.
The 28-11 Wolves lead the West and are as close as you can get to a sure thing at the 4-36 Pistons tonight. Detroit is coming off a win-just its second at home this season.
Ohio State Leaves Little Doubt to Who’s No. 1
The Gopher women hoped to prove they were the No. 1 team in the country when they faced first-ranked Ohio State this past weekend. But the Buckeyes left little doubt as to their favoritism for the NCAA crown, outscoring the Gophers 13-1 in a pair of wins at Ridder Arena. Can’t remember a weekend like this for the Gophers, who dropped to No. 4.
The Gopher men swept their last non conference weekend, against Robert Morris, and host Ohio State this weekend in Big 10 play. The Buckeyes are just 1-9-2 in conference and sit in last place. Minnesota is in fourth.
Gopher Hoops
The Gopher men’s seven-game winning streak seems a thing of the distant past after a pair of losses, particularly Monday’s 86-77 home loss to Iowa at The Barn. They’re at Michigan State on Thursday. The Gopher women are at No. 16 Indiana tonight. They’ve won their last two games-both Big10 affairs, including a 62-58 victory over Nebraska at home on Sunday.
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