The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

#-1: Wild (Last Week: -4).  Overall, this week is underwhelming.  The performances for all six local teams continue to expose big and serious weaknesses in their efforts to win a title.  So I am giving the top spot for the week to the Mild, which beat the BJs in a Shootout in Columbus, then came home to cool off the Las Vegas Golden Knights which have been rigged to give the expansion team a powerful roster in order to ensure a non-hockey market a good team from the outset, 5-2.  They got crushed by The Bastard North Stars down there, 6-1, which really sucks.  But this was a road game the night after beating Vegas at home, and since all the other teams in this survey turned in weaker weeks, this loss is the most forgivable.

For now they hold down the final playoff spot out west.  They have a pair of Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday weeks coming up.  First up: At St. Louis, then home to Arizona and Chicago.

#-2: Timberwolves (Last Week: -3).  Hey, if this team could just play all their games at Target Center, they would be unstoppable.  Unfortunately you can't do that, thus a pair of five-point losses to start off the screening week at Atlanta and Toronto on back-to-back nights.  But once the Woofie Dogs got back to some home cookin', they handily beat Milwaukee and New Orleans to stretch their home winning streak to a dozen.  Unfortunately, they strike back out on the road, albeit to face reeling Cleveland and Chicago, the team to which they sent Kris Dunn and Zach LaVine to extract Jimmy Butler.  Then on Sunday they come home to face Sacramento.

#-3: Gopher women's hockey (Last Week: -1).  This year remains upside-down; it's the pro teams trying to redeem the WMNSS while the Dinkytown teams are dragging down the local sports scene.  The best among these this week are the lady icers, and even they managed just a split of road series with St. Cloud St.  I could see the glass half-full with Saturday's 5-2 victory.  But I want to find fault, so I have to dwell on this club blowing a two-Goal lead in the third period and then falling to the Huskies in a Shootout.  Sure, they get a loser point, but they're still losers, and they remain firmly on the bubble heading into the final series of the year in two weeks.  It's against Wisconsin, which was the #1 team in the land but got swept this weekend by resurrected Ohio St.

#-4: Gopher women's basketball (Re-Entry!).  The U. lady ballers also split on the road.  But they followed up a ten-point win at Wisconsin Wednesday with an eight-point defeat at Iowa Super Bowl Sunday despite Carlie Wagner reaching 2,000 points with the Gophers in that game.  Charlie Creme still has this squad on the periphery of the NCAA Tournament, but I don't think they have any margin for error.  They finish a three-game road trip Thursday against Purdue, then return to Williams to face Penn St. Sunday, the first of a four-game homestand.

#-5: Gopher wrestling (Last Week: -6).  Got crushed at Iowa Friday, 34-7.  Mitch McKee won at 133, but the more notable story is unranked Brandon Krone not only beating 20th-ranked Mitch Bowman at 184 but winning via Major Decision.  So hey, these guys didn't get shut out.  They finish conference play this weekend out east -- Rutgers Friday, Maryland Sunday.

#-6: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -5).  Stick a fork in these guys, they're done.  If I have more time next week I'll expound on the fate of Richard Pitino.  But for this week let's just note that they got blown out at Iowa and then folded on a Three-Point Play in Overtime at Michigan.  This week: Home to Nebraska, at Indiana.