Stanzel’s Sports Takeout — BREAKING NEWS: 4.21.25

Apr 21

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Taylor Heise stole a pass in overtime and set up Tessa Janecke’s game-winner as the U.S. beat Canada 4-3 for the gold medal of the World Championships, the last international tournament before the Olympics in February. Heise also scored earlier in the game.

The Loons have points in eight straight games since losing the season opener, but they’ve been held scoreless in two straight games now including a scoreless draw against Dallas on Saturday. They host Vancouver this Sunday.

Did you know the Wild and Wolves have won a playoff game on the same day just once in history? When Andrew Brunette scored in Game 7 on April 22, 2003, the Wolves beat the Lakers. They’ve got a chance Tuesday (Wolves 9, Wild at a totally unreasonable 10 central).

TNT using remote announcers in the Stanley Cup Playoffs is an atrocity.

Vegas Takes Game 1 Over Wild

The Wild is going to have to get more shots through traffic to win a game, much less the series, against Vegas.

The Golden Knights blocked 25 shots and beat the Wild 4-2 late last night in a tight checking game that featured two goals from Matt Boldy. The budding Wild star had just one goal in two prior career series. Brett Howden scored twice for Vegas.

The critical point of the game came with things tied up 1-1 in the second. Joel Eriksson Ek was called for a high-sticking penalty (a penalty no doubt, although this is the playoffs and they let much more egregious things go especially from the home team). Five seconds later, in a tale as old as time, the Wild lost the faceoff (JEEK being the best faceoff man on the team), and Pavel Dorofeyev scored into a wide open net. John Hynes thought they was interference on the faceoff.

The physicality of this series helps Vegas, no doubt. They set an NHL record for fewest penalties in the regular season, but they’re big and can hit (just ask Ryan Hartman).

Wolves Stun Lakers with Game 1 Blowout

Not even the most positive Minnesota sports fan (I hear there are a few) could have predicted the tour de force the Wolves put on the Lakers in Game 1. Minnesota shook off a slow start for an absolutely dominating, 117-95 win in Los Angeles on Saturday.

The Wolves hit 21 3-pointers (they only hit 23 2-pointers). Jaden McDaniels scored 25 points, including 11-of-13 field goals, and grabbed nine rebounds. Naz Reid hit six, 3-pointers en route to 23 points off the bench. Anthony Edwards (22 points, nine assists, only one turnover) was good, but it was hard before the game to imagine a scenario where ANT would be the team’s third-leading scorer and the Wolves would win in blowout fashion.

Here’s the thing - LeBron and Luka are great, obviously. But no one else on the Lakers would certainly start on the Wolves. Minnesota has seven guys who can be lethal on any given night, and it’s the reason Minnesota has a big chance in this series.

The problem underdogs/lower seeds run into in Game 2 is this - they give it their best in Game 1, and the loser/higher seed comes out with a much better effort in Game 2. You can expect that from the Lakers, but even if the Wolves don’t win Game 2, you have to love coming home tied 1-1.

Game 2 is Tuesday at 9 p.m. in L.A.

Twins Swept by Braves, Fall to 7-15

Any good vibes the Twins had since taking two of three against the Mets last week were quickly wibed out when they limped to three straight losses against a Braves team that had just five wins entering the weekend.

Minnesota dropped to 7-15 yesterday in a 6-2 loss. Trailing 5-1, they loaded the bases with less than two outs in two straight innings but didn’t score a run. In the fifth, Trevor Larnach took a called strike three right own the middle before Carlos Correa grounded into a forceout.

In the first game of the series, the Twins led 4-1 in the eighth before Griffin Jax gave up five runs.

If the Pohlads weren’t trying to sell this team (or if this team had a new owner), Rocco Baldelli would be long gone. But they have to know Target Field will be empty this summer, so don’t you have to do something?

They’re back home this week for three against the White Sox - the lone AL team with fewer wins than the Twins - and the Angels.

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