Minnesota sports update: The Loons and the Twins are back

CATHY WURZER: It is indeed Thursday, and that means it's time for sports right we here from our sports experts right now, Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson. Wally's the founder of Minnesota Score Magazine and the co-host of 10,000 Takes Sports Talk show. Eric is the other host of 10,000 Takes and is also the Minnesota Vikings reporter for CBS Sports Radio's Eye on Football. How are you two?

ERIC NELSON: I'll be better when the temperatures rise above 40. How's that?

CATHY WURZER: Just wait, it's coming be patient.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: I'm soaking up the last day of winter, Cathy, here in [INAUDIBLE].

CATHY WURZER: Yes, you are. [LAUGHS] I'm surprised you're not talking to us from somewhere out in LA or something like that. All right, yes, we're all waiting for those warm temperatures, which will be coming this weekend. So let's talk ice hockey, Gopher hockey. The men's hockey team, of course, is playing Boston University in Tampa, right?

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Yes, speaking of warm temperatures. The Gophers are in Tampa this afternoon. It's a 4 o'clock face off. They're playing Boston University. If they win, they will move to Saturday's championship game where they would play either Michigan or Quinnipiac. Now, if they do win the title this year, it'll be their first Frozen Four title in 20 years.

Minnesota, with five NCAA titles, same as Boston University. Now, last year, the Gophers got into the Final Four, the Frozen Four if you will, but they lost to Minnesota State Mankato in the semifinals. Bob Motzko does not want that to happen again. I read a quote from him said, "it's kind of lonely getting on that plane immediately after playing one game." He does not want a repeat performance of what happened last year.

So they're number one in the nation. They're a number one seed. They are favored. We'll see what happens. They do have two of the three finalists for the Hobey Baker Award, Logan Cooley and Matthew Knies. And that will be announced on Friday. And oh, by the way, Matthew Knies is likely to sign with the Toronto Maple Leafs as soon as this weekend's tournament is over.

CATHY WURZER: Oh, he is such a good player, such a good player. OK, we go from collegiate hockey to the Wild, Eric Nelson.

ERIC NELSON: Yeah, Cathy, the Minnesota Wild tonight, a big game in Pittsburgh against the Penguins. If you look at the NHL Central Division, you've got a scrum at the top. The wild, Colorado, and Dallas are tied for first. They've each got 98 points.

Now, the Avalanche have played one less game than Minnesota or Dallas, and that might give Colorado, the defending Stanley Cup champs, a slight edge in winning this thing. But the Wild have been fire on ice recently. And they've done a lot of this without Kirill Kaprizov. He has not played since March 8th with a lower body injury. He did skate Wednesday. And of course, Minnesota hoping to get him back on the ice soon don't know exactly when that will be. But they have to get him ready for the postseason, which is not that far away.

As far as Pittsburgh goes, of course, the Wild and Penguins are in different conferences, so they only play twice in the regular season. Sidney Crosby, and he certainly is one of the faces of the NHL, maybe this generation's version of Wayne Gretzky, but he's in his 18th season.

So he's been durable with the Penguins. He's still playing at an elite level. Sidney Crosby, Sid the kid, I don't think we can call him a kid anymore, but he's got 88 points, which leads the Pittsburgh Penguins. So it's good to see these guys continue to play outstanding hockey as they get into the winter portion of their career.

CATHY WURZER: And of course, folks remember Sidney Crosby played at Shattuck St Mary's in Faribault.

ERIC NELSON: He did, so Minnesota can claim him.

CATHY WURZER: Yes. Now, good move on the Twins part here, Wally, that they moved the home opener from today to tomorrow because right now, what's the current temperature? 32, it's 32 under sunshine here in the Twin Cities. [LAUGHS] It would have been cold.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Yes, 32 lovely degrees, yeah, no, that was-- and they did it a couple of days ahead of time, which was really a good move. It allowed people to shift their schedules who were planning to go on Thursday and play the game on Friday.

Oh, by the way, if you have not gotten your tickets yet, now that Friday is available to you as opposed to Thursday, there are still tickets available. And you can get them on the secondary market for as little as 13 bucks. So you can go watch the Twins in their home opener tomorrow afternoon.

They are currently in second place behind Cleveland, a half game behind. 4 and 2 on the season. They opened the season with that six-game road trip. They lost yesterday, but Pablo Lopez, their starting pitcher that they picked up in that trade from Miami going against his former team, pitched really well. And their starting pitching has been really good through these first six games.

Lopez went seven innings gave up just one run. Got pulled after seven innings, and then the bullpen kind of did what it did a lot of last year, unfortunately. But they ended up losing yesterday 5-2, but again, they are back on again. There's 162 of these, so you can't get too wound up about one loss or one win.

Tomorrow, it will be Sonny Gray. How appropriate, Sonny, on Friday, pitching for the Minnesota Twins.

CATHY WURZER: Sonny Gray. Eric, I have lost track of the Wolves. I'm embarrassed to say that. Now they made the playoffs, right?

ERIC NELSON: Yeah, technically, they've made the play-in portion of the postseason. So we know that, Cathy. We know they have two regular season games left. They're going to play Saturday versus San Antonio in Austin, Texas. So it's not quite a neutral site game. It'll be more Spurs fans, but it's definitely not in San Antonio. And then Sunday, they come up to Minneapolis to finish the regular season against New Orleans.

So Minnesota has punched a play-in ticket. The T Wolves are currently the number 10 seed in the Western Conference. The possible opponents they could play in the postseason, which is coming up, like the NHL. More than likely, it would be Oklahoma City, New Orleans, or LeBron and the La Lakers, who had a crushing loss last night to the LA Clippers in downtown Los Angeles.

So there's a lot still in play, and I call the Timberwolves team Yo-Yo because they're just up and down. It's hard to get a read on them. But they're in the play-in, and we'll see if they can parlay that into some postseason success.

CATHY WURZER: I don't know. Do you feel good about this or not?

ERIC NELSON: They're a hard team to get a gauge on. They really are. I think Valley Fair should name their next roller coaster Timberwolf because they're up and down. You just don't know where they're going to take you. It's a wild ride. Maybe they'll surprise us all. Sometimes the good stuff happens when you least expect it in sports.

CATHY WURZER: That's true. Wally Langfellow, do you agree with this, by the way? You're a basketball fan.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Yeah, no, Eric hit the nail on the head. They've been up and down all season long. And they win games that you don't think that they are going to win. And they lose games that they should have won. For example, last Sunday against Portland, a team that was missing nine guys. And the Timberwolves still managed to lose to them.

But then they go to Brooklyn and beat the Nets. So one other basketball note I want to throw in. This just came across today. Former Gopher forward Jameson Battle, who entered the portal, who said he was going to go pro, entered the portal. He's going to end up at Ohio State University.

So that's really bad. Not only did he leave the Gophers for his senior year, he ends up at one of their opponents in the Big Ten. Tech.

CATHY WURZER: Ooh, well they had their problems this season. Hey, before we go, Eric, Minnesota United. The Loons are off to a pretty fast start.

ERIC NELSON: They are. Min U has three wins, two draws, and 11 points in five games. The Loons knocked off undefeated Saint Louis City FC last week down in Missouri. So that was a big notch in their belt. Saturday they'll play Chicago at Soldier Field on the lakefront down there in the Chi town.

CATHY WURZER: Wow.

ERIC NELSON: And let's give some kudos to goalkeeper, Dayne St Clair, who was part of the World Cup team in Canada a few months ago. He's given up just two goals in four starts for Min U. So they are very optimistic about this season. Keep an eye on Minnesota United in the MLS.

CATHY WURZER: By the way, before you guys go, are you going to go see the Twins tomorrow? No.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: I am

CATHY WURZER: You are.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: No, I'm going, yeah.

CATHY WURZER: OK, good. OK.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: I'll be there.

ERIC NELSON: I hope to be there on the weekend.

CATHY WURZER: I know it's supposed to be warmer.

ERIC NELSON: That's my goal.

CATHY WURZER: Yes, pick your spots, Eric. See, Wally's going to go out there, and he's going to freeze. It's going to be 48, better than today, but still kind of cool, so.

ERIC NELSON: Hey, Monday's game or Tuesday, I think, we're talking possibly low 70s when the Chicago White Sox--

CATHY WURZER: That is correct. That is correct. All right, you guys. I got to go. Enjoy the weekend. Thank you.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Thanks, Cathy.

ERIC NELSON: You too.

CATHY WURZER: Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson. Wally is the founder of Minnesota Score Magazine, the co-host of 10,000 Takes Sports Talk show. Eric's the other host of that show. And he's the Vikings reporter for CBS Sports Radio's Eye on Football.