Adam Beckman’s path to the Wild’s lineup this season has been beset by obstacles. Whether it was his salary, other players or just plain opportunities, the third third-year pro hasn’t found many minutes with the big league club in 2023-24.

But the big winger was set to get another chance on Tuesday night in Anaheim, Calif., when the Wild played the Ducks at Honda Center.

“This is an exciting time of the year to have an opportunity to play,” Beckman told reporters after Tuesday’s morning skate. “So, I just want to come in and make an impact in that game.”

Set to become a restricted free agent at season’s end, Beckman, 22, had played in only three NHL games this season before Tuesday’s 9 p.m. puck drop. At the season’s onset, he was grounded in Iowa because Minnesota’s salary cap room was so thin, it couldn’t fit his $894,000 salary.

By the time the Wild got some cap relief through long-term injured reserve, veterans Vinni Lettieri and Jack Lucchini had solid homes on the checking line. When Beckman was recalled before the March 8 trade deadline, the Wild were focused on getting 2020 second-round pick Marat Khusnutdinov into the lineup.

Coach John Hynes said Monday none of this had much to do with Beckman’s performance, and on Tuesday he was set to replace Lettieri in the lineup for at least a game — another big one for a Wild team that has been playing well since the all-star break but struggled to catch up in the Western Conference playoff race.

They started Tuesday’s games five points out of a wild card spot with two teams ahead of them and 14 regular-season games left.

“I think it’s huge,” Beckman said. “I think all the games down the stretch here are massive; obviously, all the points matter. No matter what, you’re coming out here to try and win the hockey game; I think that’s been the focus for quite some time here. I’m just excited to play in some meaningful games.”

Beckman has spent quite a bit of time with the Wild, even if he had just three appearances — and one assist — to show for it. Overall, he has played in 15 NHL games since being taken in the third round of the 2019 entry draft.

“It’s been good,” he said. “It’s been fun just to kinda be around this group of guys and kinda build some more camaraderie. I think being somewhat new here, it’s fun to have that opportunity to be around the guys.”

Reunited

Late in Saturday night’s 3-2 shootout loss at St. Louis, Hynes broke up his top line of Kirill Kaprizov, Ryan Hartman and Matt Boldy to get Kaprizov together with center Marco Rossi and wing Mats Zuccarello.

It worked. The revamped line accounted for two third-period goals as the Wild rallied to force overtime. But Hynes planned to reunite Hartman with Kaprizov and Boldy on Tuesday in Anaheim.

“We made a little tweak in the third period with Rossi and Zucc, but it wasn’t anything with Ryan,” Hynes said. “So, we’ll go back with that (Tuesday) and see if we can have those three really be a dominant factor for us.”

Hartman, who has played on every line in nearly every situation this season, was bumped back to the top line when Joel Eriksson Ek was lost to a lower body injury in a 4-1 victory over Arizona on March 12. It wasn’t out of the blue. Hartman, 29, has been playing his best hockey of the season.

Since Feb. 19, Hartman has two goals and 13 points and is a plus-10 in 17 games.

“I think when he’s playing his best game, he’s playing his game with pace. I think he’s got some offensive instincts, makes some offensive reads that make him fit in with Kirill and Boldy,” Hynes said. “And then I think that in the center position, they get some hard matchups, and I think he’s done a good job on the defensive side of the puck, just his positioning and his responsibilities in that role.”

Briefly

Filip Gustavsson was set to start his first game Tuesday since he stopped 38 of 40 shots in a 2-1 overtime loss March 8 in Colorado. Marc-Andre Fleury is scheduled to start Wednesday night against the Kings in Los Angeles.

The winter state tournament season wraps this week with boys basketball taking centerstage. Quarterfinal action tips off Wednesday, with Class 4A quarterfinal games played at Target Center, while Class 3A will be at Williams Arena.

Class 2A quarterfinals will be split between Target Center and Williams Arena.

Then, on Thursday, Class A tips off in the Timberwolves’ home arena.

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.

Here’s what to watch for this week:

Class 4A: Defending state champion Wayzata returns as the top seed and favorite to defend its crown. The Trojans (27-1) have just one loss all season, which came to Hopkins, whom Wayzata downed by 29 in its section final.

Creighton commit Jackson McAndrew is the best player in the state, and the Trojans have plenty of skill around him.

Wayzata certainly will be challenged. Last year’s runner up – Park Center – features an imposing starting five led by Jackson Fowlkes and Washington commit Casmir Chavis. Third-seeded Minnetonka can score with anyone in the state.

In contrast, Cretin-Derham Hall is generally elite defensively, and then there’s Farmington, making its first state tournament appearance in 87 years.

Class 3A: A three-peat seems likely for top-seeded Totino-Grace, whose only losses to Minnesota teams this season were against Class 4A competition. The Eagles are led by Miami commit Isaiah Johnson-Arigu.

But a potential second-round matchup with fifth-seeded DeLaSalle could prove interesting. The Islanders have also gone toe to toe with a number of 4A heavyweights this season. Nothing Totino-Grace presents would stun DeLaSalle.

A hat tip to Minneapolis South, who’s back at state for the first time in 32 years, one year after posting a six-win campaign. The Tigers will meet third-seeded Alexandria, led by 6-foot-9 Gophers commit Grayson Grove.

If you’re looking for a show, Chisago Lakes’ 6-foot-7 senior Patrick Rowe is known for his highlight reel jams.

Class 2A: Badgers commit Daniel Freitag leads top-seeded Breck into state for just the second time in the Mustangs’ program history, and the first time since 2006. Breck has a number of impressive wins on its resume this season, yet could face an interesting semifinal date with conference rival Minnehaha Academy.

The Redhawks are the defending state runners-up. They’re led by guard Lorenzo Levy, who’s averaging 18 points per game.

Second-seeded Albany is the defending state champ. It played just one metro team this season – a win over Minnehaha Academy. The Huskies have won 22 straight games.

Class A: Top-seeded Cherry is led by Gophers commit Isaac Asuma. The senior guard is in pursuit of a state title that’s proven elusive in two previous trips to Minneapolis.

Cherry’s quarterfinal opponent? None other than the defending state champion, Russell-Tyler-Ruthton.

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After closing and then reopening in St. Louis Park, Choo Choo Bob’s Train Store is laying tracks for a return to St. Paul.

The popular toy shop, featuring wooden trains and interactive play areas, will open in retail space in Union Depot on Friday, May 3.

The management of the historic Lowertown transportation hub made the announcement on Tuesday.

Choo Choo Bob’s originally operated at Cleveland and Marshall avenues in St. Paul.

Co-owner Jennifer Southerling and a next-door neighbor from Robbinsdale purchased the store from founder Bob Medcraft in late 2019, promising to continue the legacy he had built across 14 years.

But the pandemic derailed the business, and it closed in September 2020, apparently permanently. But in November 2022, Southerling announced that Choo Choo Bob’s was reopening in the Shops at West End in St. Louis Park.

The toy store is well known for its birthday celebrations, which sometimes featured appearances in character from store employee Paul Howe, otherwise known as Engineer Paul, a regular in “The Choo Choo Bob Show,” which was featured on local television but now streams online.

The shop’s last day in St. Louis Park will be this Sunday. It will reopen in Union Depot at 10 a.m. May 3. Info at choochoobobstrainstore.com.

 

Shanna Daniels was a 43-year-old breast cancer survivor who was continuing recovery from her April 2020 diagnosis, chemotherapy and double mastectomy. She was strong and independent — and getting her life back on track at the time of her brutal murder, her family and friends said.

Daniels had found a new job and a new place to live, an apartment in North St. Paul. It was there when, in July 2022, she met Melvin Bilbro, who lived in an apartment building next door.

Shanna Renae Daniels, 43, of North St. Paul. (Courtesy of Daniels’ family)

“They started dating, and she set boundaries around their relationship,” Daniels’ friend, Tracey Wilson, told the court Tuesday. “He didn’t like her boundaries.”

Just over six weeks into the relationship, Bilbro, a convicted felon with a history of domestic violence against women, turned on Daniels — beating, strangling and stabbing her to death in her apartment. He set fire to her body and bedroom to try to conceal the Aug. 25 killing.

On Tuesday, Ramsey County District Judge David Brown sentenced the 42-year-old to life in prison without the possibility of parole, the mandatory sentence for premeditated murder.

“The pain and the brutality you inflicted was horrific,” Brown said. “To desecrate her body by burning it in a futile attempt to cover up the murder was awful to her, and endangered the lives of everyone else in that apartment building.”

A grand jury indicted Bilbro of first-degree murder, second-degree intentional murder and first-degree arson in September. He waived a jury trial, and Brown found him guilty of all three charges on Feb. 2 after an eight-day bench trial.

At the time of the murder, Bilbro was a four-time convicted felon on intensive supervised release after serving prison time for failing to fulfill his registration requirement as a predatory offender. He was released from prison five months before the murder.

Bilbro’s other past convictions in Minnesota were for attempted second-degree murder of his then-girlfriend and for second-degree criminal sexual conduct involving her 12-year-old daughter, both from a 2008 case; and for third-degree assault involving another girlfriend in 2019.

He declined to address the court Tuesday.

Bloody evidence

North St. Paul police officers and firefighters responded to the fire at Daniels’ apartment building in the 2200 block of South Avenue around 6:30 p.m. Firefighters put out the blaze in Daniels’ third-floor apartment, and found her partially burned body on her bedroom floor.

The Ramsey County medical examiner’s office concluded that Daniels died of homicide before the fire. She had multiple sharp-force injuries to her head, neck and pelvic area, as well as a perforated left eye and fractured nose.

Witnesses at the scene said they had heard Daniels and her boyfriend arguing at the apartment the night before the fire, the charges said. Another witness saw Bilbro in Daniels’ apartment at the time of the fire. Her landlord identified Daniels’ boyfriend as Bilbro, who lived in an adjacent apartment building.

In Daniels’ apartment, investigators found a bag with bloody items: a pack of Newport cigarettes, a pair of scissors and a folding knife with its tip broken off.

In Bilbro’s apartment, a bloody pair of shoes was found near the door. A phone with bloodstains and a set of Daniels’ keys to her apartment were in his bedroom. A pair of sweatpants, a neon yellow work vest and a piece of paper — all with blood on them — were also found. Daniels’ small dog — covered in soot — was in the bathroom. Blood was on the sink and at the edge of the bathtub.

Melvin Bilbro (Courtesy of Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Agents with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and other law enforcement officers arrested Bilbro around 4:30 a.m. the next day near a trail that led away from his apartment building. He had been sleeping in grass, and had with him a piece of paper with blood on it and Daniels’ EBT card.

In an interview with investigators, Bilbro changed his story several times, the charges said. At first, he said he was just friends with Daniels, then said they had a sexual relationship. He acted surprised when told about the fire, then said he was at his apartment during the fire and walked away to smoke marijuana. He said he last saw Daniels on Aug. 23, then said Aug. 25.

“Bilbro could not explain the items in his apartment that had blood on them,” the complaint said.

Past cases

Bilbro has a pattern of assaulting women dating back to 2002 in Illinois, Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Erin Gustafson told the judge Tuesday. “He is and he will always be a grave danger to society,” she said.

According to court documents in the Hennepin County attempted murder charge filed in 2008, Bilbro threatened to kill the woman he was dating at the time and attacked her while she was asleep and her children slept in the room next door. He choked the woman and stabbed her in the eye, blinding her in that eye. He also sexually touched the woman’s daughter, court documents said.

Bilbro was sentenced to 13½ years in prison. He was out in 2019 and was dating another woman when he punched her in both eyes, knocking her out in St. Paul, according to a criminal complaint. He was convicted of third-degree assault and given a nearly two-year sentence.

Because of the 2008 conviction, Bilbro had to register as a Level 2 predatory offender and notify law enforcement of any changes to his primary residence. In March 2021, Minneapolis officers were told that Bilbro was no longer at a treatment facility and his whereabouts were not known, according to another criminal complaint.

Bilbro was charged with failing to fulfill his registration requirement as a predatory offender. He pleaded guilty, was sent back to prison in September 2021 and was placed on intensive supervised release in March 2022.

‘Chance after chance’

On Tuesday, Daniels’ mother, Carmencita Crowelle, said in her victim impact statement that Bilbro took her oldest child, leaving her family and friends “with many sleepless nights, heartache, heartbreak.”

“Shanna came from a loving family,” she said. “Shanna was loved, and Shanna is missed every single day. Shanna represented so much love in our family.”

She said her daughter “could have been anyone’s daughter, granddaughter, wife or sister.” She said she now tells parents of young women to look into the backgrounds of the “new names that have encounters with the ones that they love.”

“I’m extremely mad. I’m extremely sad, and at times at a loss for words,” she said.

Daniels, in the short time she knew Bilbro, helped him “get on his feet,” said Angela Young, her friend from middle school.

“He took her kindness for her weakness,” she told the judge. “He had chance after chance to be a law-abiding citizen, but that’s not what he chose to do. He took his chance to take a life.”

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