The start couldn’t have been much better for Minnesota; the finish was exhilarating.

Amaya Battle scored a career-high 35 points, including four free throws late in overtime, and the Gophers beat Gonzaga 82-77 in a Women’s Basketball Invitational Tournament quarterfinal on Thursday at Williams Arena.

Grace Grocholski finished with 20 points and Tori McKinney had 19 for Minnesota.

The Gophers (23-11) advance to the WBIT semifinals against Florida on Monday at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The title game is Wednesday. Minnesota lost to St. Louis in last year’s lower-tier WNIT championship.

Grocholski scored on a jumper with 2:09 left in the extra session for a 75-72 lead. Yvonne Ejim scored to get the Bulldogs within one, but Battle made a pair of free throws with 1:28 left. Battle also tied a career high with 10 assists.

Two more free throws by Battle, one by Kennedy Klick and two from Grocholski finished off the Bulldogs. Klick’s point was the only bench point for Minnesota.

Both teams had a chance to win in the final minute of regulation.

Tied at 70 coming out of a timeout with 40.5 seconds left, Battle missed a jumper with 31 seconds left. Gonzaga got the ball and called a timeout.

As they did most of the game, the Bulldogs patiently worked their offense. But Ejim was forced into a low-chance, off-balance desperation jumper and the game went to overtime.

Ejim, the player of the year in the West Coast Conference, led the Bulldogs (23-11) with 27 points and 15 rebounds.

Battle had 13 points and McKinney 10, and Minnesota shot 71.4% in the opening quarter for a 25-16 lead.

But the Gophers made an offensive U-turn in the second quarter, being outscored 19-9. Minnesota made just 3 of 16 shots, missed all six attempts from deep and found themselves down 35-34 at the break.

Down by six after three quarters, back-to-back layups by Grocholski and Battle — on a feed from Grocholski — got Minnesota within 56-54 early in the fourth quarter, but Gonzaga scored nine of the next 12 points for an eight-point lead with 5 minutes left.

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For the Minnesota Wild fans waiting for someone to step up and provide an offensive spark in the midst of their non-stop injury parade, forward Matt Boldy re-introduced himself to the audience in St. Paul on Thursday.

The Wild, in desperate need of points as the Western Conference playoff race tightens, trailed Washington late in the second period when Boldy set up the tying goal and scored the go-ahead goal in a game Minnesota won 4-2 on Thursday at Xcel Energy Center.

The win snapped a two-game losing streak and gave the Wild some much-needed confidence back after they had scored just one goal in the previous two losses.

Filip Gustavsson turned in a 28-save night for his 29th win of the season, and the Wild got two Freddy Gaudreau goals — one on the power play and one into an empty net — and an early goal from Jon Merrill as they work to hold off hard-charging St. Louis in the race for the final two playoff positions.

Charlie Lindgren, the former St. Cloud State standout, had 17 saves for the Capitals, who hadn’t lost a game in regulation for two weeks. They got goals from Matt Roy and Brandon Duhaime to lead 2-1 after 20 minutes, but could not find the equalizer after Minnesota took the last lead.

The myriad fans who came to see Capitals star Alex Ovechkin and his pursuit of the NHL’s career goals record left disappointed. Ovechkin had three shots on Gustavsson, and had a mini-breakaway in the third period thwarted by Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin, who caught Ovechkin from behind and swatted the puck away.

Ovechkin left Minnesota still needing five goals to tie Wayne Gretzky’s NHL-best mark of 894.

In a touching moment after the final horn, all of the Capitals lined up to shake hands with Wild goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who is retiring at the end of this season.

Minnesota struck first when Merrill’s shot from long distance found its way through a maze of bodies in front of the Washington net and past Lindgren’s glove hand. It was just the second goal of the season for Merrill, who has been one of the Wild’s more durable players this season.

The lead was short-lived, as Capitals defenseman Roy zipped a shot past Gustavsson just 68 seconds later. Minnesota trailed before the first period was half over, as Gustavsson stopped a shot only to have former Wild forward Duhaime pop in the rebound. The Wild coaches challenged the play for potential goalie interference, but the goal was allowed to stand and Washington was awarded a power play for the unsuccessful challenge.

With the Wild using five forwards on the power play for the first time this season, they were held without a shot on their initial man advantage of the game. But in the second period, when Capitals defenseman Martin Fehervary went to the penalty box for holding, the Wild’s quintet of forwards clicked.

They tied the game when Boldy, manning the blue line, blasted a shot that deflected off Gaudreau’s stick on the way past Lindgren. Boldy then gave Minnesota the lead for a second time with 8.5 seconds left in the middle frame, corralling a Vinnie Hinostroza pass from behind the net and popping a high shot over Lindgren from just inches outside the crease.

Wild forward Marcus Foligno returned to the lineup after a five-game absence due to an upper body injury. Fourth-liner Brendan Gaunce was scratched to make room for Foligno. The Wild were also without defenseman Declan Chisholm, who missed his second consecutive game following an injury suffered in Monday’s loss at Dallas.

The Wild’s stretch of playing 10 of 11 games at home concludes on Saturday as the New Jersey Devils make their only visit of the season to Xcel Energy Center. The game is slated for 5 p.m. CT.

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ST. LOUIS — Pablo López talked of setting the tone for the game, for the series, for the season a day before making his third consecutive Opening Day start for the Twins.

Surely, a day as uncharacteristic as the one he had on Thursday was not what he envisioned. Twice, he had a runner break for second and was in position to throw him out. Twice, something went wrong. And twice, López was hurt by a two-strike changeup which led to a St. Louis Cardinals run.

When all was said and done, the starter had surrendered four runs (two earned), issued a costly balk and threw a ball away trying to nab a runner at second.

After a rain delay that lasted nearly 2 hours, López gave up runs in each of the first three innings and the Twins would never recover, falling 5-3 at Busch Stadium to open the 2025 season.

After former Twin Sonny Gray sent the Twins down on six pitches in the top of the first, López labored through the first inning, allowing a single, issuing a balk that caused Rocco Baldelli to emerge from the dugout to get an explanation and then allowing another pair of hits.

An inning later, after the Twins had stranded the bases loaded in the top of the second, Lars Nootbar got ahold of a two-strike changeup and sent it out to right field, bringing in two runs. That followed a throwing error in which López’s throw to catch the runner attempting to steal went into the outfield rather than shortstop Carlos Correa’s glove.

López’s day ended in the fifth, at which point he had given up four runs and been outpitched by his former rotation-mate, Gray. Gray was unscored upon until the fifth inning when former Cardinal Harrison Bader, who was greeted earlier with a round of applause from the fans, took a pitch out to left field for a two-run home run.

The Twins tacked on another run in the sixth inning with Willi Castro coming through with an RBI double to score Trevor Larnach, right after Ty France had been robbed of extra bases by center fielder Victor Scott II. But they wouldn’t get any closer than that as Griffin Jax allowed a home run to Nolan Arenado in the eighth, and the Twins left Bader on second to end the game.

St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Sonny Gray (54) pitches during the fourth inning of an opening-day baseball game against the Minnesota Twins on Thursday, March 27, 2025 in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Michael Thomas)
Carlos Correa #4 of the Minnesota Twins greets teammates before the game against the St. Louis Cardinals on Opening Day at Busch Stadium on March 27, 2025 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Joe Puetz/Getty Images)
St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Lars Nootbaar (21) scores during the first inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins on Thursday, March 27, 2025 in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Michael Thomas)

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A 76-year-old woman was struck and killed while crossing a White Bear Township road on Thursday afternoon by a driver who left the scene but soon went to police, according to the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office.

The collision happened around 4:22 p.m. at the intersection of White Bear Parkway and Birch Lake Boulevard North at the township’s border with White Bear Lake.

Witnesses said the motorist was headed north on White Bear Parkway in an Ford SUV while the woman was walking east in the crosswalk of Birch Lake Boulevard, said Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Jake Olson. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene.

The intersection has stop signs on Birch Lake Boulevard, but not on White Bear Parkway, Olson said. The speed limit in the area is 40 mph.

Deputies received an update at 4:43 p.m. that the driver had gone to the White Bear Lake police station, Olson said, adding that the motorist is now cooperating with the investigation. Olson declined to provide additional information, including the sex and age of the driver.

The victim wasn’t immediately named, pending positive identification and notification of next of kin.

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