Stanzel’s Sports Takeout — BREAKING NEWS: 5.14.26
Loons lost 1-0 at home to Colorado.
Be back Monday. You don’t need me to preview Wolves Game 6 Friday at 8:30. We’ll either be recapping Game 7 or doing a season post-mortem Monday.
Wild Blow Three-Goal Lead and Lose to Avs in 5 Games
After the Wild’s three-goal, Game 5 lead became a two-goal lead 31 minutes into the game, I asked the Internet “Where would this rank amongst Twin Cities sports collapses”?
The answer? Very high. Mile high, even.
The Avs scored the game’s final four goals, the last Brett Kulak’s series-clinching goal 3:51 into overtime. Colorado won’t need to go back to St. Paul. Kulak, who was traded twice this season, had one goal in 83 regular season games.
The Wild recorded just seven shots in the final 43 minutes, 51 seconds of the game. That after a first-period blitz that had everyone in Minnesota looking at secondary market pricing for a Game 6 on Friday.
The Wild still led 3-1 after two periods, despite 32 shot attempts from the Avs in the second period. Minnesota actually had quite the push to begin the third period, but the Avs scored twice late.
Ryan Hartman iced the puck, lost a faceoff and Jack Drury got the Avs within a goal with 3:33 left. After a Jake Middleton turnover with the goalie pulled, Nathan MacKinnon scored in his sixth consecutive game, forcing overtime with 1:23 left.
Middleton, seeing the ice more than he should because of Jonas Brodin’s injury, was also on the ice when Kulak scored in overtime. That came moments after the Avs broke up a 2-on-1 pass in their own end.
Things went so great early on, too. Marcus Johansson scored 34 seconds in, then the Wild got back-to-back Nick Foligno goals within 4:53.
But depth, without Brodin and Joel Eriksson Ek, was going to be an issue even if the Wild won this game. Michael McCarron, who had a heck of a series, was a fourth-line center a month ago and was suddenly 2C. And the Wild’s star player, Kirill Kaprizov, failed to get a shot on net in the elimination game. It was his pass on the aforementioned 2-on-1 that got broken up. Kaprizov had just one shot in the Game 4 loss.
The Avs, meawhile, have 16 goal scorers this post-season, matching an NHL record.
You can’t play Quinn Hughes and Brock Faber all night, but John Hynes basically does. You can’t play those two 30 minutes a night and not have them on the ice for the entire last two minutes of regulation. Hughes, especially, routinely skates two-minute shifts. And Hynes obviously had no faith in his third pair. Jeff Petry skated just a tad over nine minutes.
Woods-Richardson Awful Again in Twins’ Loss
The Twins aren’t blessed with very deep starting pitching, but it’s hard to imagine Simeon Woods-Richardson gets many more starts.
Believed to be the No. 3 starter this season Woods-Richarsdon allowed eight runs without getting an out in the fourth inning of a 9-5 home loss to the Marlins. Woods-Richardson has a 9.79 ERA in his last seven starts. He’s 0-6 this season.
Byron Buxton hit a pair of homers for the Twins, while Kody Clemens also homered.
Woodbury’s own Kent Meyer beat his hometown team on the mound.
Matinee rubber match today.
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