Stanzel’s Sports Takeout — BREAKING NEWS: 3.4.24
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Best video you’ll see this week as West Chester University’s Jordan Keiller’s family flies in from Jamaica to surprise him on senior night.
Caitlin Clark AND Boys Hockey Tournament week in the Twin Cities! Gopher women will play Rutgers on Wednesday around 8 in the 11/14 seed game after a 56-point loss to Penn State yesterday.
Tani Oluwaseyi scored in the final seconds (literally) of stoppage time to give the Loons a 1-1draw with defending MLS champ Columbus in the Loons’ home opener. They’ll put their 1-0-1 mark on the line Saturday in Orlando.
Taylor Heise returned from injury, but it was former Gopher linemate Abby Boreen who scored (along with Kelly Pannek) in Minnesota’s 2-0 win in New York yesterday. They host Ottawa at The X on Tuesday.
Kaprizov Hat Trick Keeps Wild Afloat
The Wild is still a longshot at the quarter pole to make the post-season, but they’d have been DOA if not for Kirill Kaprizov’s hat trick in a 4-3 win over lowly San Jose at The X. Minnesota was just two back of a playoff spot less than two weeks ago, now sits eight back after their victory over the Sharks kept them from losing four times in six games.
Old friends Mikael Granlund and Nico Sturm each scored unassisted goals as the Sharks built a short-lived two-goal lead. Frederick Gaudreau, who I haven’t even thought about in two months, got the Wild on the board and Dolla Bill Kirill scored his first goal 75 seconds later.
The Wild gave up the next goal, but Kaprizov’s 28th and 29th goals lifted the Wild to the win.
At the season’s quarterpole, they’ve got some work to do, beginning with back-to-back games in Arizona and Colorado on Thursday and Friday.
Wolves Lose Back-to-Back Games
The Wolves have lost back-to-back games for just the third time this season-and the first time since mid-January. While you could maybe excuse Sunday’s 89-88 defensive battle against the Clippers, on Friday night they fell down big early to the woeful Kings, recovered, but still lost in OT.
Suddenly, Minnesota no longer has first place in the West to themselves. And Denver ischarging, too, with six straight wins.
Minnesota’s MO in so many of its losses this season have been blown fourth quarter leads, but they’ve had a handful of the games like Friday, where they just don’t show up in the first eight minutes. You’ve got to bring it every night in the NBA. The comeback was even harder without Anthony Edwards, who’d left to attend the birth of his first child.
The Wolves try to avoid losing three straight for the first time this season tonight when they close out a seven-game homestand against Portland, currently 14th in the West. Even a win tonight would give them a less than stellar 4-3 mark on this homestand. And they’ve got six on the road coming up, with both the men’s and women’s Big 10 Tournament at Target Center.
Gopher Hockey
Minnesota split a pair of games against Michigan at Mariucci, with the loss coming in OT. They finished third in the Big 10 regular season, and now host sixth-place Penn State in the best-of-three first round of the Big 10 Tournament.
The women nearly suffered an all-time college hockey shock in their first round series against Minnesota State. After a 5-4 loss in Game 1 on Friday, the Gophers earned handy 7-1 and 3-0wins to close out the series. They’ll make the NCAA Tournament, but they’ll be underdogs against Wisconsin in the WCHA Final Faceoff semifinal Friday at Ridder. It’s Ohio State and UMD in the other semifinal.
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