Frankie Capan III opened his rookie season on the PGA Tour with a series of strong performances.

And then the success dried up. And when things start to go bad on the top tour in men’s pro golf, it’s difficult to turn the ship around.

Capan missed six straight cuts entering this week’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans, and was in need of a spark to get his season back on track. He appears to have found that in the form of team golf at TPC Louisiana.

Capan and his partner, Jake Knapp, posted a 12-under round of 60 in the third round of the tournament Saturday in Avondale, Louisiana, to move to 24-under on the week, good for a tie for second. The duo, which will play in the final group in Sunday’s final round, is just three shots back of leaders Andrew Novak and Ben Griffin. That group tees off at 12:55 p.m. Central on Sunday.

Saturday’s format was four-ball, in which both players on the two-man team play their own ball, and the best score between the two on each hole is recorded for the score. Capan birdied eight holes Saturday, while Knapp had eight as the tandem tallied the best score of the day.

“We birdied a lot of opposite holes, so that helped a lot,” Capan told reporters. “I really think we both had a good chance on most every hole, and in a best ball it’s nice to just have a lot of looks at it, and I felt like we did a really good job of just kind of taking care of our own games and making a few putts out there.”

Saturday’s round was likely the best the North Oaks product has played since he finished 12th at The American Express back in mid-January. The 25 year old has struggled with his driver in recent months. Yet he said Saturday he never felt his game was “too far away.”

“I think that’s the unique thing about golf is you could have one weird day or a couple bounces not go your way and think, man, I shot 74, but it really didn’t feel like I played that poorly. I think for me, it’s just a matter of getting more experience,” Capan said. “I always enjoyed learning from people older and more experienced than me, so it’s been great having Jake by my side and just kind of picking his brain and asking him a few things here and there and working on some shots, as well.”

Sunday marks Capan’s first time in the hunt to win a PGA Tour event. And while the team format doesn’t offer Official World Golf Rankings points, there’s a significant amount at stake. The FedEx Cup points are significant. If Capan and Knapp merely held their current position, Capan would climb from 149th to 95th in the season-long standings.

But if the duo was to win, Capan’s career trajectory could be forever changed. Not only would that equal a two-year PGA Tour exemption, but Capan would also automatically be into all of the high-purse, high-point Signature Events over the remainder of the season and earn a spot in next month’s PGA Championship.

That’s a lot to think about heading into Sunday’s final round, which features an alternate shot format in which Capan and Knapp will play the same ball and take turns taking strokes. Thankfully for Capan, he can lean upon Knapp, who just won a PGA Tour event last season in Mexico.

“I think at every level, whether it’s junior golf, amateur golf, Korn Ferry Tour, now PGA Tour, you want to just kind of get comfortable at every stage, and I feel like I’ve been able to
do that better and better the last couple years,” Capan said. “But having Jake by my side has been great. He was helping me with a couple things on the range (Friday), even for some tee shots today that I felt like really helped. I feel like my game felt a lot more clean than it did the first couple rounds. Just going to go work on a few more things and be ready for (Sunday).”

Rookies can add great things to their teams come playoff time. And there are moments where you’re reminded they are rookies.

That was the case for defenseman Zeev Buium on Saturday, after he again showed flashes of the offensive brilliance that made him one of college hockey’s top players as a sophomore at Denver, and took a costly penalty that changed the direction of the game.

With Buium in the penalty box for four minutes, the Golden Knights tied the game, and Buium didn’t see the ice in overtime of the Wild’s loss in Game 4. But after the game, his coach wasn’t making a scapegoat out of the rookie, or anyone.

“I think just more of the situation of some of the guys that we were going with. I think that was the decision we made going through,” John Hynes said about Buium’s limited ice time, although he did play following the penalty. “He was fine after, like we put him right back out, when he got out of the penalty (box). I just thought when we get into overtime, we were going with the guys we went with.”

Wild captain Jared Spurgeon, who has played defense at this level for more than a decade, said that the penalty — which came when Buium inadvertently caught Vegas captain Mark Stone near his eye with a high stick — was unfortunate, but nothing more.

“Unlucky. He didn’t mean to do it,” Spurgeon said. “Nothing you can do. Nothing really to say other than support him.”

In all, Buium logged 13:33 in the game, and was a plus-2. Matt Boldy set a team record for time on the ice by a forward with 33:08, while defenseman Brock Faber played exactly one second less, at 33:07.

Assist from the seventh player

There is a running joke in hockey that attackers on a power play would never know when to release the puck, save for the crowd yelling “shooooooot” whenever there’s an opportunity to test the goalie.

But when the Wild got a vital man-advantage goal late in the second period of Game 3, the audience may have actually been helpful. Knowing that there were less than 10 seconds remaining in the period, Ryan Hartman could hear the crowd yelling for a shot as the puck was coming his way. So, he took a quick glance at the scoreboard just before the pass reached him and saw roughly four seconds with which to work.

Knowing there was no time for a fancy play, Hartman threw the puck toward the goalmouth where it glanced off Kirill Kaprizov’s chest and over the goal line for a 4-1 lead.

“They get it,” Wild coach John Hynes joked afterward. “The seventh man gets the assist on that one.”

Political appeal at the rink

In addition to the highlights, crowd enticements and advertisements shown on the Xcel Energy Center scoreboard between periods, on Saturday there was a QR code posted with an appeal for Minnesotans to contact their legislators and urge their support of public dollars to upgrade the 25-year-old arena.

Wild owner Craig Leipold and St. Paul mayor Melvin Carter testified before the Minnesota Senate and House earlier in the spring, detailing a request for nearly $400 million in state dollars for updates and upgrades not only to the hockey arena but to the adjacent Roy Wilkins Auditorium and RiverCentre convention facility.

A scan of the QR code took visitors to a website where they could sign up for updates on the renovation efforts, noting that the arena complex generates $383 million in local spending and draws 2 million visitors to St. Paul each year.

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There was a clear headliner of the undrafted free agents that signed with the Vikings.

Gophers quarterback Max Brosmer.

After not hearing his name called in the 2025 NFL draft, Brosmer signed with the Vikings in the immediate aftermath. He will reportedly get a deal with $250,000 guaranteed. The addition of Brosmer rounds out a talented quarterback room that also includes presumed starting quarterback J.J. McCarthy, presumed backup quarterback Sam Howell, and reserve Brett Rypien.

It’s a great situation for Brosmer to walk into as he’ll get to work directly with head coach Kevin O’Connell as he learns the ropes of the position at the next level.

The other 18 undrafted free agents the Vikings signed (in alphabetical included BYU edge rusher Tyler Batty, Texas receiver Silas Bolden, Kansas offensive lineman Logan Brown, Georgia edge rusher Chaz Chambliss, Auburn punter Oscar Chapman, North Carolina State offensive lineman Zeke Correll, Tulane receiver Dontae Fleming, Kansas State cornerback Keenan Garber, Wisconsin offensive lineman Joe Huber, Auburn linebacker Austin Keys, Auburn receiver Robert Lewis, Auburn linebacker Dorian Mausi, North Carolina tight end Bryson Nesbit, Miami safety Mishael Powell, Jacksonville State running back Tre Stewart, Utah cornerback Zemaiah Vaughn, Middle Tennessee State defensive lineman Alex Williams, and Georgia tight end Ben Yurosek.

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What a shame.

The Wild did almost everything right in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series against Las Vegas on Saturday. Almost. That’s good enough for some NHL teams; it isn’t for this Wild team, for which the other shoe always seems close to dropping — and often does.

That other shoe is special teams, which have haunted Minnesota for two full seasons now — and longer when one assesses their previous two postseason appearances. It was inevitable they would bite the Wild at some point during this year’s postseason, and it came Saturday when Vegas scored a pair of power-play goals to beat the Wild in overtime, 4-3, at Xcel Energy Center.

After two strong wins in Vegas and St. Paul, the Wild not only had a chance to take a 3-1 series back to Las Vegas, but looked as if they would. Despite falling behind on Shea Theodore’s power play goal in the first 7 minutes, the Wild kept grinding and took a 2-1 lead into the third period on greasy goals by Marco Rossi and Marcus Foligno.

The Wild were playing a tight, responsible game and goaltender Filip Gustavsson was in control (he finished with 42 saves). They even killed two off other man advantages. Then less than 2 minutes into the third period, Zeev Buium, a rookie playing his fourth NHL game, got his stick under the helmet of Matt Stone and cut the top-liner’s right eye.

Buium was sent to the box for 4 minutes on a double minor. Uh oh.

It’s one thing to ask this team to kill 2 minutes when a man down; it’s another entirely to ask them to do it for 4 minutes. They came close, but with 8 seconds left, fourth-line center Nicolas Roy pounced on a rebound in the slot and fired it back into the net to make it 2-2.

That changed just about everything.

Knights skaters hadn’t really been in sync to that point, just missing on a lot of passes and pucks, perhaps because, you know, a 3-1 series deficit is hard to come back from. But after tying in, Vegas looked refreshed and took a 3-2 lead when a shot from Stone caromed off teammate Tomas Hertl, who was in a heap with Ryan Hartman at the crease.

Jared Spurgeon tied it again, 3-3, with a wraparound goal with 9:03 left in regulation, but the Wild were gassed. They came out firing in overtime but couldn’t solve Adin Hill and finally ran out of steam. It didn’t help that coach John Hynes was essentially playing five defenseman for most of the third period and overtime.

After last season, Hynes fired former assistant Bob Woods and brought in former Islanders head coach Jack Capuano, and promoted Pat Dwyer from Iowa, to look under the hood. The nuts and bolts might have changed, but the results haven’t. The Wild had the NHL’s third-worst penalty kill in 2023-24 and finished the regular season this year in the exact same spot after allowing 56 power-play goals.

Their two postseason trips prior to this one were undone by special teams, and now — four power-play goals against later — this one is tilting the same way.

Back in 2023, the Wils were up on Dallas in a first-round series, 2-1, before the Stars went 2 for 3 with a man advantage and beat Minnesota 3-2 in Game 4. At that point, the Stars were 6 for 16 with a man advantage, and Dallas scored two more on the way to a 4-2 series victory.

In 2022, the Wild were up on St. Louis, 2-1, before losing in six. They allowed six power-play goals in that one. At some point, this becomes unacceptable. Staying out of the box isn’t a viable penalty kill plan.

Afterward, Hynes said he was happy with the kill, saying it’s “in a really good spot.”

“We got good saves, we had good attention to detail, we killed well,” he said. “You come into a game like this, you look at the way we played, tonight you could arguably say there were a couple bounces that didn’t go our way.”

“Here we are,” he added. “Love it.”

It’s true, this series isn’t over, now a best-of-three starting Tuesday in Vegas. But it feels as if that other shoe will be there, too, waiting to drop.

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