Hartman: Nanne believes home ice will be a boost to Wild

Lou Nanne is Mr. Hockey in the State of Hockey, a man who knows the game as well as anybody. He gives the Wild a chance to beat Chicago in Game 3 of their playoff series Sunday at Xcel Energy Center.

"Chicago is the top team in the league, and so the Wild have their hands full," Nanne said. "[The Wild] have been playing hard. They've had some chances. They aren't going to get as many chances as Chicago, so when they get them they have to put something in."

Nanne pointed out that the Wild could have won Game 1 on Tuesday but got outplayed in the second game Friday, despite having some chances.

"They have to make the chances count. It's really tough to play Chicago, because their defense is so good and they get the puck out of the zone so fast, so the Wild haven't been able to put too much pressure on," Nanne said.

In Nanne's opinion, the matchup with the Blackhawks is not favorable for the Wild.

"Chicago has got such a good puck-moving defense and really a lot of high-skilled, scoring forward on two lines. The Wild have to play real, real defensive to stay in the game," he said.

Nanne does believe home ice will be a big plus for the Wild.

What does the Wild have to do to win?

"They have to play real tight. They have to try and frustrate Chicago," Nanne said. "They can't open it up and they have to be better on the power play. The power play hasn't been good. They have to score goals on the power play.

"Chicago is a team that won the Stanley Cup. They had an unbelievable run of wins this year, so they're accustomed to playing anywhere. The crowd should help Minnesota more than it's going to hurt Chicago."

At a news conference Friday announcing Flip Saunders as the new Timberwolves general manager, owner Glen Taylor brought up the long relationship the two have had.

"When I bought the team [in 1995], one of the first guys that wrote to me was a fellow named Flip Saunders," Taylor recalled. "He wrote me a letter and said, 'If there's some space in here for me, I'm very interested.'

Taylor added that from that conversation, Saunders was offered the job of general manager.

"I was new, he was new, we spent a lot of time talking, getting to know each other about things even up and above basketball," Taylor said.

"Our families got to know each other very well. And then a decision was made that Flip would become the coach. We had already established a very close relationship, so when he was coach here, we continued on that close relationship. We talked about all facets of basketball and got to know each other."

The Gophers have probably sold more tickets to football games at TCF Bank Stadium playing schools from North and South Dakota than they did playing some Big Ten opponents, and certainly against other nonconference foes.

But in the future, they will no longer be able to play FCS teams, as per a new ruling by the Big Ten Conference, in order to get member schools to play more competitive nonconference schedules.

So as of right now, the Gophers' last game against an FCS opponent would be in 2019 when they play host to South Dakota State on Aug. 29. They will not face South Dakota, North Dakota or North Dakota State ever again unless the schools move up to FBS.

Twins center fielder Aaron Hicks, who hit his first major league home run on Saturday, knows he can't get too down about his early-season hitting troubles.

"Well of course it is tough, I had a lot of at-bats in spring training and it's just a matter of time. Guys go through ups and downs and that's part of the game," said Hicks, who is now hitting .123. "I'm starting to get back on track now and I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing."

Hicks added that he hasn't altered his approach.

"I'm sticking to what worked in spring training and what works for me as a hitter," he said. "I'm still attacking fastballs and getting good pitches to hit."