Minnesota Sports Briefs: Four teams advance in Class 1A hockey quarterfinals

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ST. PAUL -- Four teams advanced to the Class 1-A semifinals of the Minnesota Boys' State Hockey Tournament with quarterfinal victories on Wednesday. Defending state champion

St.Thomas Academy skated to a 7-0 win over Little Falls in the opener. The Tommies' Tom Novak scored 38 seconds into the game and finished with a pair of goals and two assists. Matt Colford had two goals and an assist and Jack Kenney made 18 saves as Breck shut out Duluth Marshall 7-0. Hermantown improved to 29-and-oh with a 7-2 victory over Rochester Lourdes. Jared Thomas had two goals and two assists for the unbeaten Hawks. And Thief River Falls scored five unanswered goals in a 5-1 win against New Ulm. Riley Soderstrom and Tanner Nessen each scored twice for the Prowlers.

Here's the schedule of today's Class 2-A quarterfinal games at the Xcel Energy Center:

#2 Maple Grove vs. Hill Murray 11 a.m.

#3 Eagan vs. Moorhead 1 p.m.

#1 Duluth East vs. Lakeville South 6 p.m.

#4 Edina vs Benilde St.Magaret's 8 p.m

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The University of Minnesota men's basketball team opens the Big Ten Tournament this afternoon against Northwestern (4:30 p.m.). The Golden Gophers and Wildcats split a pair of conference games this season with each team winning on its home court. Minnesota is three-and-two versus Northwestern in the Big Ten tourney but was knocked out by the Wildcats last year. The winner of today's game will face seventh-seeded Michigan in the second round Friday.

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The Minnesota Wild look to snap a five-game losing streak when they play the Coyotes tonight in Phoenix (8pm). The Wild's latest defeat was a 7-1 setback at Colorado on Tuesday. Minnesota and Phoenix split the first two meetings of the season. The Coyotes were 11-oh-and-one in February but have gone 0-4-0 so far in March. Wild forward Cal Clutterbuck and defenseman Justin Falk are questionable for the Wild tonight.

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The Minnesota Twins fell to the Orioles 6-0 in Grapefruit League action Wednesday afternoon in Sarasota, Florida. Minnesota starter Carl Pavano allowed one run on six hits over three innings in his second outing. Baltimore left-hander Wei-Yin Chin threw two scoreless innings and struck out the side in the second in his Spring Training debut. In a "B" game versus the Red Sox in Fort Myers yesterday, Joe Mauer played five innings of first base. The Twins catcher said he felt a lot more comfortable at first than he did last year.

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