Weekend Sports Preview

By MPLS Lumberjacker Lars Larson

[First I just want to introduce myself, my name is Lars and I will be the Sports blogger/columnist for the Minneapolis Lumber Jackers website. I will be covering all the major, college and some high school sports around the State and dabble in outstate stuff as well. Tell you this now; I will not cover much of the Wild. Why you ask? Because I am a die-hard North Stars fan and I am still crazy biter that they left town. I hate Norm Green. But maybe my coverage of Gopher hockey will cheer up the puck heads. Now on with my weekly Weekend Sports Preview, if you can think of a cooler name, let me know.]

Let’s start it if off.

Vikings play the Steelers at Pittsburgh which will be a tough matchup with Roethlisberger coming off last weeks 417 yard passing performance versus a Vikings secondary that just disappeared in the second half of last weeks loss er I mean win over the Ravens. With a limping Winfield, this could be a big game for Big Ben. Favre and Peterson need to bring their “A” game this week to push us to seven wins. Keys to the game, convert third downs, score points, grind the clock and keep the Steelers offense off the field. Other interesting tidbits about this game: This is the first time Mike Tomlin gets a crack at his former employers. This will be the first time Favre and Roethilisberger will face off. And fantasy tease Rashard Mendenhall will get the start in the backfield for the Steelers, Gopher fans will remember him from his days lighting us up when he was at Illinois...(read more)

Speaking of the Gophers they face a tough challenge this week vs. Ohio State at Columbus. Getting blanked last week at Penn State doesn’t give me much confidence about this weeks game, even though the Buckeyes aren’t exactly playing at their best right now. Once again Weber & Decker will have to carry the load for any chance of an upset.

I may be the only one in town who is excited about the Wolves this year, but it’s for a good reason. Even if they lose, they will score, score, and score. Kurt Rambis run-and-gun-triangleish offense will be entertaining this year. And it will be fun watching Flynn, wait til you see how quick this guy is. The Wolves face Toronto this Friday for the last pre-season game before the opener Wednesday night vs. New Jersey Nets. Al Jefferson is still hampered by his Achilles and Kevin Love just had successful surgery yesterday on his hand and should be back in early January. With all these injuries it puts more pressure on our young rookie, Johnny Flynn, to handle the scoring load and lead this team. One shocking thing this fall, Corey Brewer has been scoring…in double figures!

Friday night the Men’s Gopher hockey team holds their home opener vs. Denver at Mariucci Arena. The Gophers are looking for their first win of the year after last weekend’s blowout and a tie to North Dakota. Junior Mike Hoeffel has looked good so far this year, lets hope he gets some help this weekend to get that first Gopher win.

Other things of note around the Cities:

- Gopher Men’s basketball practices are underway with Royce White, Colton Iverson and Ralph Sampson III getting early praise from Tubby Smith.

- Twins fans downtown this weekend will get an eyeful of light as the completion of Target Field nears, crews will continue to test the new ballpark's lights through the end of October. Light levels will be tested Wednesday-Friday nights.

- The number one ranked High School football player in the country, Seantrel Henderson from Cretin-Derham Hall, is said to be down to four choices. USC, Florida, Norte Dame and Ohio State. I guess last weekends visit to South Bend went well, and pretty much closed the door for the Gophers to land the in-state prospect.

- The Wild still hold the worst record in the West, but beat Colorado in a shootout 3-2 the other night. They play at St. Louis Friday night and come back home Saturday to face Carolina at the X.

Have a good weekend everyone. I will be playing my last games of the season for softball in a Halloween tournament. Wish me luck, it's going to be COLD.