In a span of less than three weeks, Minnesota’s fortunes in the Professional Women’s Hockey League have gone from near catastrophe to being on the cusp of capturing the inaugural PWHL championship.

Nicole Hensley

The Walter Cup will be in the building on Sunday as Minnesota looks to close out Boston after taking a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five Finals on Friday at Xcel Energy Center with a 4-1 victory. An announced crowd of 9,054 was in a festive mood from the start, and the home team did not disappoint.

After squeaking into the playoffs despite losing its last five games of the regular season, Minnesota soon found itself down two games to none against top-seeded Toronto in the first round. Since then, Minnesota has gone 5-1 and has looked every bit the part of the team that was among the league’s elite for most of the season.

Minnesota took a 2-0 lead into the locker room after the first period and controlled play for most the night. Minnesota outshot Boston 25-19.

Nicole Hensley got her second straight start in goal for Minnesota after earning the shutout in Game 2. While she wasn’t tested often, she was called upon to make a handful of key saves.

Minnesota needed only 59 seconds to take a 1-0 lead. Michela Cava stole the puck behind the Boston net and centered it into the slot. Taylor Heise jumped on the loose puck and fired a wrist shot past Boston goaltender Aerin Frankel for her fifth goal of the postseason.

Sydney Brodt made it 2-0 at 17:38. Brittyn Fleming circled the Boston net with the puck before attempting a stuff shot. Frankel was there for the stop, but Brodt poked in the loose puck in the slot for her first goal and first point in the playoffs.

Boston scored the only goal in the second period, and it came with two seconds to play. Alina Muller pounced on a loose puck in front of the Minnesota net and fired it past Hensley.

Michela Cava

The goal changed the complexion of the game, but only briefly. Cava scored a huge goal at 3:27 of the third period to give Minnesota a 3-1 lead. After taking a cross-ice pass from Heise at center ice, Cava stick-handled past two defenders before slipping the puck past Frankel for her third goal of the playoffs.

Hensley made a big save on a point-blank shot with just over six minutes to play that led to the crowd chanting her last name in appreciation.

Boston went on a power play at 15:37 and elected to pull its goalie. The move backfired, however, when Grace Zumwinkle poked the puck out of the Minnesota zone, outraced two defenders and slid the puck into the empty net as she was being dragged down.

Zumwinkle slid into the back of the net just after the puck crossed the goal line.

Briefly

The PWHL announced prior to the game that the draft will be held June 10 at Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul. The PWHL Awards will take place the following afternoon inside the Great River Ballroom at the InterContinental St. Paul Riverfront Hotel. Tickets to the draft are free and will become available on May 29.

There are 20 Minnesotans playing in the PWHL, and 16 of them are competing in the PWHL Finals.

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It’s been a month to forget at the plate for Twins catcher Christian Vázquez, who snapped an 0-for-27 skid just a few days ago. The same goes for Alex Kirilloff, who entered the day hitting under .100 in May.

But on Friday, that duo helped the Twins defeat the reigning World Series champions, each driving in a run in Minnesota’s 3-2 win over the Texas Rangers in the series opener at Target Field.

Kirilloff showed off a pretty swing, hitting a long blast to right field in the fourth inning, a home run which provided the difference.

It came two innings after Twins hitters had rallied to tie the game up with a pair of runs in the bottom of the second. Vázquez’s double brought home the Twins’ first run of the night, and the very next  batter, Edouard Julien, grounded out to second, bringing home another run.

Vázquez went 2 for 4, marking his first multi-hit game of the month, though his trip around the bases resulted in him easily getting thrown out at home after he blew past third base coach Tommy Watkins’ late stop sign.

That put an end to a good scoring chance, but because of a stout effort from Twins pitchers, they were able to hold strong with their slim one-run advantage.

The game got off to an inauspicious start for the Twins: Starter Bailey Ober walked leadoff Marcus Semien and allowed a home run to Corey Seager, but he worked through a turbulent first and second innings and then settled down.

Though his 30-pitch first inning ratcheted up his pitch count quickly, Ober threw five innings. The final hit he gave up, a single to Josh Smith in the fifth inning, was the only hit Twins pitchers gave up from the third inning onward.

Steven Okert, Caleb Thielbar and Griffin Jax each threw a scoreless inning before Jhoan Duran rebounded with one of his own, a welcomed sign after the Twins closer surrendered three home runs on the latest road trip.

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When the Timberwolves were devising ways to slow, or at least make life difficult, on Denver center Nikola Jokić in the Western Conference quarterfinals, they had a pretty good stand-in.

“It was a lot of fun for me, and I took it very seriously,” third-year pro Luka Garza said before Minnesota’s Game 2 against Dallas at Target Center on Friday night.

Garza isn’t a three-time NBA Most Valuable Player — he’s still trying to find regular playing time after being a second-round pick in the 2021 draft — and Jokic has almost 50 pounds on the former Iowa center. But they’re both bigs who can shoot and pass.

“I tried to give these guys the best looks I could and try to replicate the things he does,” said Garza, a 6-foot-10, 235-pound center who was a two-time Big Ten player of the year in Iowa City. “Obviously, it’s a guy I watch a ton of film on, so it was pretty easy for me to kind of know what he’s going to do.”

Garza, 25, is in his third NBA season and played in a career-low 25 regular-season games in his second season in Minnesota. But that was to be expected.

“I came into this year fully understanding what my role was,” he said. “It’s as an emergency guy behind three of the best bigs in the league.”

That would be 2023-24 NBA defensive player of the year Rudy Gobert, four-time all-star Karl-Anthony Towns and 2023-24 NBA sixth man of the year Naz Reid. It’s a formidable rotation and doesn’t leave a lot of minutes for Garza. That’s OK, especially as those three have racked up big minutes in the Timberwolves’ run into the Western Conference semifinals for the second time in franchise history.

The last time, Garza was 5.

“Obviously, I’m a basketball player, I want to be on the floor,” Garza said. “But I understand I can help this team in a lot of different ways — on the scout team, giving guys energy on the bench, whatever I can do.”

Garza got some good playing time late in Minnesota’s 45-point Game 6 victory over Denver at Target Center — eight points and two boards in 8 minutes of garbage time. Overall, he has played in six postseason games and scored 23 points in 23 minutes.

Maybe his biggest contribution so far, or at least his most enjoyable, was playing Jokić for the scout team. Like everything Garza has done since leaving college — he essentially mastered the NBA G League, averaging 36.7 points and 12.3 boards in 16 games — it also was a learning experience.

“It’s not often that guys are setting ball screens for me, and that’s what happened to me in practice. So, I’m getting to read the floor,” he said. “And obviously when you’re trying to replicate someone who’s as good a passer (as Jovic), you’re trying passes I normally would never throw.

“So, I think for me it continues to show how much I can do, and it gives me a lot of confidence moving forward that there’s a lot of room for me to grow within this game, and a lot of things I can do that, honestly, not many people know I can do.”

Garza could be playing big minutes in Europe — where three of his cousins play professional basketball — but he chooses to be in the NBA. “My dream was always to play in the NBA,” he said. And everything he does here, whether he’s playing in games or not, is progress.

“I feel the best I’ve ever felt athletically, so even if I’m not playing, it’s almost like I’m treating these workouts like the offseason in terms of how hard I’m going and trying to improve myself,” he said.

“I feel like there are a lot of elements to my game that I never had before. So, I’m excited to show it when that opportunity comes.”

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After nearly two months, Royce Lewis is finally getting his wish: he was cleared to play baseball on Friday.

It’s not at the major league level yet, but the third baseman showed the Twins’ trainers everything they needed to see to clear him for a rehab assignment. Lewis will begin rehabbing with the St. Paul Saints on Saturday in Buffalo, N.Y., serving as the team’s designated hitter.

“He ran the bases, kind of did the final thing on what the trainers were looking for as far as the intensity running the bases, running, stopping, starting, sliding, doing all those things,” bench coach Jayce Tingler said. “He’s extremely eager to get out and get going.”

That much has been abundantly clear since Lewis suffered a severe quadriceps strain running the bases on Opening Day.

Though it’s certainly not the longest injury recovery he’s been through, Lewis has described this as his most mentally challenging rehab process, primarily because there wasn’t a clear timeline for a return and he’s been feeling good for some time now.

“He’s been antsier than what I can remember in the in the past,” Tingler said. “He’s been charged up, ready to get out there. I think it’s a bit challenging because he wants to be out there so bad with the guys. … He feels like he’s in a great spot, the medical team feels he’s in a great spot, so now it’s about getting out there and just finding the rhythm and timing.”

Tingler didn’t want to venture a guess about how long Lewis might need to rehab, but he did note that Lewis seems to be the type of player who doesn’t really need a lot of at-bats to get his feel at the plate back. Last year, Lewis came straight off the injured list at the end of the season and hit two home runs in the first game of the Wild Card Series.

While Tingler said he doesn’t think it will take Lewis too long from the hitting standpoint, it’s important for him to gain strength and stamina in his legs and build up properly after almost two months away.

When he does return, it’s an instant boost for a Twins lineup that has been missing one of its best offensive weapons. Lewis had just two at-bats this season — a home run and a single — before suffering the injury.

“He’s a difference maker and a game changer. The fact that we will get him back soon is exciting,” shortstop Carlos Correa said. “Adding him to our lineup, it’s going to boost the lineup in a big way, so I’m excited for him to just go out there, take it day by day and go through his things, show everybody that he’s ready and then come back here and help us.”

Briefly

The Twins made a roster move on Friday, optioning reliever Caleb Boushley to Triple-A and bringing back Jorge Alcala. … Reliever Brock Stewart (shoulder) is continuing with plyo throws as he works his way back. … Chris Paddack will take the ball on Saturday for the Twins’ second game against the Texas Rangers.