After giving up three runs in the top of the ninth inning to send the game to extra innings, the St. Paul Saints lost 9-8 in 11 innings against the Omaha Storm Chasers on Thursday night at CHS Field.

Diego Castillo allowed three runs on four hits in the ninth, blowing his first save of the season for St. Paul. Omaha took a lead in the 10th before the Saints answered to force another inning.

Michael Helman had two hits and drove in four runs, including his fifth homer of the year for St. Paul. Matt Wallner had a double, two walks, two runs scored and drove in a run, while Byron Buxton went 0 for 3 with a strikeout and RBI in his second rehab game for the Saints.

Jordan Balazovic (2-2) allowed an unearned run in the 11th to take the loss when Drew Waters singled to score the automatic runner, a ball that deflected off third baseman Anthony Prato. Randy Dobnak gave up three runs on six hits and two walks in five innings in the start for St. Paul, adding five strikeouts.

Helman hit a two-run homer in the second to open the scoring.

After Omaha took a 3-2 lead in the fourth, the Saints came back with a five-run sixth.

Buxton started the scoring with an RBI groundout. Wallner had an RBI double and Helman followed with a two-run single. Yoyner Fajardo added an RBI single.

But Omaha scored in each of the final four innings to send St. Paul to a second straight loss.

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His stat line wasn’t anything spectacular. Not even close. A modest 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting to go along with four rebounds and five assists.

In his brief career with the Timberwolves, Mike Conley has played dozens of games that would be considered better, at least in the traditional sense. He’s been a more swaggy scorer, a more ravenous rebounder, a more prolific passer.

No matter. The performance he put forth on Thursday night at Target Center might go down as his most memorable in a Timberwolves uniform. This was a legacy game for the man they call Minnesota Mike.

After missing Game 5 with a calf strain, Conley made his presence felt in Game 6, and the Timberwolves scored a massive 115-70 win over the Denver Nuggets to force a Game 7. When the Timberwolves needed him most, Conley showed up.

Never mind that Anthony Edwards finished with 27 points to lead the Timberwolves in scoring. Never mind that Jaden McDaniels busted out of his offensive slump with 21 points. Never mind that Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns controlled the paint on both ends.

None of that would’ve been possible without Conley playing through the pain. It’s amazing how much different the Timberwolves can look simply when he’s on the court. He’s a true difference-maker.

“He means everything for us,” head coach Chris Finch said. “He’s invaluable. It was great to see him out there. We desperately missed him the other night.”

The chaos that enveloped the Timberwolves for much of Game 5 was glaring to anybody who tuned in. You could actually sense it as soon as Conley was ruled out on Tuesday night at Ball Arena. It felt like things were going to be extremely hard for the Timberwolves, and they absolutely were in a 112-97 loss.

There was no flow on offense without Conley running the show. His absence forced Edwards to be the primary ball handler, and he struggled mightily while being double-teamed each time he tried to run the pick and roll. There were no easy buckets, and as a result, the Timberwolves looked discombobulated for prolonged stretches.

That wasn’t the case in Game 6 as the Timberwolves looked much more like themselves from the jump. After falling behind amid a slow start, they broke the game open with a pivotal 18-0 run. In that stretch, Conley found Towns down low for an easy dunk, made a 10-foot floater in the lane and swung the ball to Edwards for an open shot from long range.

He subbed out of the game with the Timberwolves leading by 12 points. They never trailed again.

How close was he to playing in Game 5?

“Obviously I wanted to play,” Conley said. “Just couldn’t move at all.”

How close was he to not playing in Game 6?

“It was a no brainer,” Conley said. “I was going try to find a way.”

He did and the Timberwolves were better for it. They always are when Minnesota Mike is on the floor.

Just ask Edwards. He succinctly summed up the biggest difference between Game 5 and Game 6.

“We got Mike Conley back,” he said. “That was it.”

As long as Conley is good to go for Game 7, the Timberwolves are going to have a chance. There’s no doubt about that.

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Minnesota fell down 9-2 in the opening minutes Thursday at Target Center, and it looked like perhaps more of the same was on its way.

Denver blitzed the Wolves in each of the previous three contests in the Western Conference semifinals, and the early moments of Game 6 appeared to be following a similar script.

Then the Wolves finally bit back.

Minnesota went on a 20-0 run and never looked back, taking Game 6 115-70 in Minneapolis to knot the series at 3-3.

The decisive Game 7 will be Sunday in Denver. The time is still to be determined. If the Knicks beat the Pacers on Friday, the Wolves’ game will be at 2:30 p.m. Central. If Indiana forces a Game 7 in that series, the Wolves will play at 7 p.m. CT.

That will be the franchise’s second Game 7 in franchise history — played 20 years to the date after Minnesota topped Sacramento in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals in 2004.

If Minnesota can play how it did on Thursday, it’ll like its chances.

The Wolves resembled the team that handled the defending champion Nuggets in the first two games of the series. They were vicious defensively, again making Denver fight for inches of space on the floor.

Even when the Nuggets generated good looks, nothing fell. Jamal Murray went 4 for 18 from the field. Michael Porter Jr. went 3 for 9. Nikola Jokic — who dominated Games 3-5 in this series — was just 9 for 19 shooting with two assists.

Denver shot just 30 percent from the field and 19 percent from deep as Minnesota built a lead as big as 50.

The Wolves were allowed to play with extremely high levels of physicality on the defensive end, and took full advantage. Minnesota’s size was finally a differentiator, as the Wolves dominated the paint and the glass. Rudy Gobert grabbed 14 rebounds, Karl-Anthony Towns had 13 and Naz Reid snagged 11.

The Wolves out-rebounded Denver 62-43.

They looked more physical, more tenacious and, well, longer than their opponent — AKA, exactly who they’ve been all season.

Somewhere along the way over the past week, they lost that identity. On Thursday, with their backs against the wall, they regained it.

It was exactly what a prophetic Karl-Anthony predicted Thursday morning after shootaround.

“So tonight is a great night for us to show that unity, that cohesiveness we’ve been talking about before training camp, before (our preseason trip to) Abu Dhabi,” Towns said. “A great chance to also show our brand of basketball defensively and offensively show how when we’re executing at a high level on defense, it can make our offense even better.”

That played out to a “T.” Minnesota forced misses and turnovers, which led to looks against non-stacked Denver defenses. Even in the half-court, Mike Conley’s return from a one-game injury absence gave Minnesota an additional shooter and playmaker that balanced out the offense.

Denver was in scramble mode for much of the night and, unlike in Game 5, Minnesota executed with poise and precision on Thursday.

Jaden McDaniels had his best offensive game of the series, tallying 21 points on 8 for 10 shooting. Anthony Edwards was again brilliant, finishing with 27 points.

When Minnesota grew its lead to 36 in the fourth frame, Edwards turned to the crowd and held up seven fingers. In the waning minutes, Target Center busted out a “Wolves in 7” chant that echoed throughout the arena.

Time — and Minnesota’s effort and energy on Sunday — will tell if that prediction comes to fruition.

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Kyle Anderson is Minnesota’s lone truly key free agent this offseason, and it’s tough to find a scenario in which the Timberwolves bring him back.

The Wolves are already set to soar into the luxury tax given the extensions for Karl-Anthony Towns, Jaden McDaniels and Anthony Edwards all kick into the team’s salary cap table.

Minnesota could still re-sign Anderson, but it would further hamstring the team financially and continue to push up the luxury tax bill that ownership — whoever that is at the time — will have to pay.

None of this has crossed Anderson’s mind to date.

“No, I don’t think about that stuff until after the season,” he said Thursday morning ahead of Game 6. “I hate thinking about that stuff.”

But it will weigh on the minds of Minnesota, surely. Anderson has had a few tough stretches of play this season. The experiment of having him play alongside multiple other bigs — whether that’s Naz Reid, Rudy Gobert or Karl-Anthony Towns — hasn’t always gone well.

Anderson’s best stretches in his two years with Minnesota have come with Towns injured, both for much of last season and then during the month this season Towns missed with a meniscus tear in March.

Whenever Anderson has played his more natural position of power forward, he’s shined. But those opportunities are injury-dependent and this season have been few and far between.

Still, it may be tough for Timberwolves coach Chris Finch to part with the 30-year-old. He has the ultimate faith in the high-IQ utility player. That trust has been earned.

“He was our most important player last year in many ways. He saved our season, he did anything we asked him to do, so we know he had it in him,” Finch said near the end of the regular season when Anderson played well in Towns’ absence. “He’s played mostly at the three this year, which has been an adjustment for many reasons. He’s a basketball player, so he can play all over the floor. I think the rhythm of the game for him was slightly different at times. That certainly had something to do with it. But I think since the trade deadline, breathe a sigh of relief that he wasn’t going anywhere and thankfully he hadn’t, never had any plans to, but it seemingly at that point in time, it’s been better and better for him.”

CONLEY, TOWNS GUT IT OUT

Mike Conley missed just one game with a calf strain, returning for Thursday’s Game 6. Calf strains generally require longer absences to allow them to fully heal, but Conley is a competitor who doesn’t want a season to end with him on the sideline.

While playing for Utah in 2021, he missed the first five games of the Western Conference semifinals in 2021 with a hamstring injury when the Jazz were taking on the Clippers. With Utah down 3-2, Conley returned for Game 6. Unfortunately, he wasn’t himself, struggled from the floor and Utah lost.

Karl-Anthony Towns played through a knee injury suffered in the second quarter of Game 5 and was visibly hobbling off the court following the contest. Towns still looked affected by the injury Thursday morning but was emphatic about his availability.

“I’m playing tonight. That’s all that matters,” Towns said. “I’ll take care of (the injury) later.”

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