The girls state basketball tournament will take over the University of Minnesota campus this week, with quarterfinals taking place at Williams Arena and the adjoining Maturi Pavilion before all semifinals and finals across all four classes are played at “The Barn.”

Quarterfinal action can be viewed on https://nspn.tv/MSHSL, while semifinals and finals will air locally on KSTC-Channel 45.

Quarterfinals in Class 4A, 3A and 2A are on Wednesday, with Class A kickoff off on Thursday.

Here’s what to watch for this week:

Class 4A

There isn’t as clear of a divide between the top and “everyone else” this season. Minnetonka and Hopkins are on top, but the defending champion — St. Michael-Albertville — is lurking in the third seed.

And while Maple Grove has lost to each of the top three seeds, the games were relatively competitive. Lakeville North and Hopkins met early in the season and the Royals won … by a single point.

It wouldn’t shock anyone if unseeded Rosemount made a deep tournament run.

Class 3A

Benilde-St. Margaret’s is the defending champ and is still armed with star guard Olivia Olson, a Michigan commit. But the Red Knights figure to face stiff competition in DeLaSalle.

The Islanders have a star guard of their own in Aneisha Scott, and topped Benilde-St. Margaret’s back just before Christmas.

Class 2A

Providence Academy is the defending champ and the favorite behind the power of star sophomore Maddyn Greenway — daughter of former Vikings linebacker Chad.

But it’s worth noting Providence Academy lost to Albany — the No. 2 seed — already this season. And Minnehaha Academy has tournament experience and a star of its own in guard Addi Mack.

Class A

As is often the case, everything is wide open in Class A.

Case in point — Goodhue is the No. 1 seed but will have a battle in the quarterfinals. Its opponent Thursday is Mayer Lutheran, who just beat second-seeded Mountain Iron-Buhl three weeks ago.

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Debbie Kukowski recalled on Tuesday when her teen grandson called her phone to say his father — her 36-year-old son — had been shot.

Dustin Kukowski was hit in the chest by a bullet during a fight with a man at Welsch’s Big Ten Tavern in Arden Hills on March 25, 2022. The Mounds View father of two children died 11 days later while hospitalized.

Dustin Kukowski (Courtesy of Debbie Kukowski)

“I had to be strong, even though I didn’t want to,” she told Ramsey County District Judge John Guthmann. “I had to tell my grandson. The pain in that child’s eyes … his dad was his world.”

The shooter, Eric Eugene Baker, 47, of Minneapolis, admitted to the killing this December, pleading guilty to an amended charge of first-degree manslaughter with an 11-year prison term as part of an agreement with the prosecution. He was sentenced Tuesday.

Baker was originally charged with first-degree assault, then third-degree murder after Kukowski’s death. Baker’s attorney filed a motion in court of their intent to claim self-defense at trial. The plea deal was reached two weeks before trial was set to begin.

Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Erin Gustafson told Guthmann on Tuesday that “a lot of time” was spent between the parties to reach “this plea deal that we think is fair.” She also noted how Baker expressed remorse during the presentence investigation, adding: “That is not something you see very often.”

Meanwhile, one more case remains open in connection with the shooting.

The owner of the bar, James Henrey Welsch, faces a felony aiding an offender charge for allegedly hiding Baker’s gun and lying to investigators when he claimed a video surveillance system did not capture the shooting. Welsch, 47, of Vadnais Heights, is a friend of Baker, the charges say. Welsch has a trial set for June.

Handgun on video

Ramsey County sheriff’s office deputies were called to the bar at 4703 U.S. Highway 10 around 12:30 a.m. and saw a patron holding napkins to Kukowski’s chest. A deputy who took over first aid saw that he had a gunshot wound that was gushing blood when pressure was removed.

Kukowski was transported to Regions Hospital in St. Paul, where doctors performed several surgeries to try to save his life.

Deputies spoke to a man at the bar who said Baker had asked him for a ride “to grab something,” the charges say. He drove Baker to Baker’s girlfriend’s apartment, where he was inside for no more than 15 minutes.

Eric Eugene Baker (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

He said they returned to the bar, where he then saw Baker and another man fighting. The man fell to the floor.

Deputies found a single 9mm shell casing. Bar surveillance video showed Baker with a handgun moments before the fight, the charges say.

Baker was arrested about two hours later at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Roseville. He declined to provide a statement to authorities.

The charges do not say what sparked the fight.

Victim ‘wasn’t perfect’

Witnesses said Kukowski was “being somewhat antagonistic that night,” Gustafson said Tuesday. “However, the defendant had numerous opportunities to leave the scene and numerous opportunities to leave the situation — and he didn’t,” she said.

During a trial, Gustafson said, bar video would have shown Baker pacing back and forth with a gun in his hand.

“The victim here wasn’t perfect,” Gustafson said. “But he would still be alive if the defendant hadn’t escalated the situation and approached him with a gun.”

Meanwhile, Baker’s attorney, Adrian Montez, said the video also would have shown Kukowski “lunging at my client before he was fatally shot. That would have been seen at trial. But we’re not here to muddy the waters. Mr. Baker knows what he did.”

Baker has been in trouble with the law since 1995, court records show. He has 10 prior felony convictions, including aiding and abetting an offender, aiding and abetting theft, second-degree burglary and first-degree drug possession.

At the time of the shooting, Baker had an open third-degree assault case out of Anoka County stemming from an incident at a Spring Lake Park bar in August 2020.

According to the criminal complaint, witnesses told police that Baker and a man got into a verbal altercation at Monte’s Bar at 8299 University Ave. N.E. The witnesses said Baker then “cold-cocked” the man, knocking him to the ground. The man, who lost consciousness, was hospitalized with injuries that included a facial fracture.

Before giving Baker his sentence Tuesday, Guthmann noted his violent past, telling him:  “You have to look inward and control your triggers. It’s something you have to address, because you’re a relatively young man and not going to be in jail forever … and I don’t think you want to make more victims. There are a lot of family members here today who are sad and suffering from this loss. And it will be with them forever.”

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At first glance, “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” looks like just another jukebox musical that also happens to be an ideal fit for Chanhassen Dinner Theatres, which just wrapped a months-long run of “Jersey Boys.”

And while it is indeed a perfect show for CDT, which also hosts weekly tribute bands heavy on boomer favorites in its Fireside Theatre, the company’s new production of “Beautiful” is much more thoughtful and emotional than one might expect and offers deeper insights than typically found in the often paper-thin genre.

The story follows one Carol Joan Klein, an awkward yet gifted young woman looking to break into show business, as she grows into Carole King, the successful songwriter and ultimately even more successful performer. Indeed, King is the woman behind 1971’s “Tapestry,” a four-time Grammy winner that stands among the biggest-selling and most-loved albums of all time.

But the King (Monet Sabel) that gave the world “Tapestry” only bookends the show, which keeps its focus on her rise to power alongside her then-husband and co-writer Gary Goffin (Shad Hanley) and another pair of musical scribes, Barry Mann (Alan Bach) and Cynthia Weil (Shinah Hey).

At the tender age of 16, King convinces her mother Genie (Kim Kivens) to allow her to visit a neighbor of the famed Brill Building and attempt to sell one of her songs to music publisher Donnie Kirshner (Michael Gruber). She succeeds and ends up on the payroll with Goffin providing the lyrics to her melodies, while developing a friendly rivalry with Mann and Weil on the side.

In the days before the Beatles and Bob Dylan revolutionized the music industry by writing their own material, the Brill Building and its peers served as hit-making factories that pumped out catchy, if sometimes vapid, songs aimed squarely at record-buying teens. The songwriting duos wrote for maximum commercial, rather than artistic, impact.

“Beautiful” packs in some 30 songs — from Goffin/King and Mann/Weil as well as their contemporaries – which keeps toes tapping and the momentum spinning forward. (And unlike many other musicals, it doesn’t overstay its welcome with a needlessly padded second act.)

While King and Goffin marry early after her unexpected pregnancy, the cool Weil and neurotic Mann take a much more measured approach to balancing work and romance. For the first time, CDT artistic director Michael Brindisi shares directing duties with his daughter Cat, and the pair’s familial bond clearly informs the storyline as it examines the intersections between love, work and family.

Sabel spent years as the King understudy in the “Beautiful” national tour and truly excels now that she’s finally up front. She finds the true humanity in King and does the perfect job of channeling, but not blindly replicating, her unique talent and spirit. Hey is even better as Weil, lighting up every scene she’s in while suggesting she’s the wisest person on stage (as Weil likely was in real life).

Bach manages to gets some laughs from Mann’s quirks without lapsing into parody and Hanley does a fine job of portraying Goffin’s descent into substance abuse, infidelity and artistic torment. One of the finest moments in the show is the rendition of the Monkees’ “Pleasant Valley Sunday” that exposes the conflicts between King’s desire for the suburban life and Goffin’s fear of songwriting musicians and the more sophisticated work of Mann/Weil, whose “On Broadway” and “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” tower over Goffin/King’s “One Fine Day” and “The Locomotion.”

A real triumph of a production, CDT’s “Beautiful” will make the earth move under your feet.

‘Beautiful: The Carole King Musical’

When: Through Sept. 28
Where: Chanhassen Dinner Theatres, 501 W. 78th St., Chanhassen
Tickets: $105-$75 via 952-934-1525 or chanhassendt.com
Capsule: “Beautiful” is far more than your typical jukebox musical.

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The Wild were ready to send Marat Khustnutdinov out for warmups before Tuesday night’s game against the Arizona Coyotes at Xcel Energy Center, even though the team was not going to play their rookie center.

That’s because Khustnutdinov didn’t want to do his traditional, rookie solo lap to start warmups and then not play.

“He’d rather save that for his first game,” coach John Hynes said. “Which I totally get.”

The Wild have kept themselves relevant down the stretch with a 10-4-2 run that started when they returned from the all-star break with a 2-1 win at Chicago on Feb. 7, so Khustnutdinov — a second-round pick in the 2020 entry draft who just finished his fourth season in the NHL — has not become the team’s main storyline.

But there is an eager curiosity among fans to see the young Russian, promoted by general manager Bill Guerin as a speedy center who can help the team immediately. Still, the Wild are not going to rush a top prospect who just arrived from Moscow on Saturday night and spent his first full day with the team on Tuesday.

Khustnutdinov had a full morning skate, then went through all the team’s pregame meetings. It’s the same approach they took with Declan Chisholm after they claimed him off waivers from Winnipeg on Jan. 29.

Chisholm, who had played only eight games all season prior to being claimed, waited almost two weeks before making his Minnesota debut, but he said Tuesday that it worked for him.

“I think it definitely helps watching a few games before just jumping into the lineup,” Chisholm said. “You haven’t played with any of the guys, to get a couple practices and get some chemistry down with guys, I think it was beneficial.”

Chisholm also skated in a few warmups before playing in a game, but he already had played in four NHL games with the Jets. For Khusnutdinov, this is it.

“Our plan was to try to give him the experience to be able to warm up, then you realize this is his first game in the NHL,” Hynes said. “He’s excited for it, but I think he wants to make sure he’s ready, too. He wants that opportunity when he’s going to play.”

It seems likely that will be on Thursday against the Anaheim Ducks at the X.

Bold move

Hynes’ overtime gambit in a 4-3 victory over Nashville on Sunday was the talk of the NHL, and he did get some congratulatory texts from coaching colleagues after the afternoon game.

“A few guys did,” he said. “Nothing major, but a few guys.”

It was a rare move in the NHL because it comes with an additional penalty for losing. If you pull the goalie in OT for any reason other than a delayed penalty and lose, your team surrenders the point they earned for going to overtime.

Vinni Lettieri was among the Wild players anticipating the move.

“It was a bold move to start, but it was the right move, obviously,” Lettieri said Tuesday, “and he made a great call.”

Asked if the decision told the players anything new about their coach, who replaced Dean Evason on Nov. 28, Lettieri said no.

“I think he’s been all-in since he got the job,” the former Gophers forward said. “I think the culture turnaround here is we want to win, and anything less than winning and making the playoffs is a disappointment to the organization. So, I don’t think that decision had anything to do with his mindset; it just shows how desperate we are for every single point.”

Briefly

The Wild activated forward Marcus Johansson from injured reserve and put him in Tuesday’s lineup. Marcus Foligno, who sat out the morning skate for maintenance, also was in the lineup.