MInnesota Sports Briefs: Wild to host open scrimmage tonight at Xcel

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ST. PAUL - The Minnesota Wild expect nearly 18,000 fans at an open scrimmage tonight at the Xcel Energy Center.

Head coach Mike Yeo says the team will play this scrimmage just like a game, right down to officiating, bench play, and everything else. Yeo says it will be good for his team to play in front of a big crowd in a scrimmage prior to the regular season opener at home against Colorado on Saturday night. Tickets to tonight's scrimmage are free, but are mostly spoken for. For info, go to the team's webpage.

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Today is "Wild Wednesday" across the Twin Cities metro area. The day culminates with the scrimmage in St. Paul tonight, but also includes a variety of events at the Xcel Energy Center as well as special discounts on Wild merchandise at the team's official stores in St. Paul, Burnsville, and Maplewood. Single game tickets to regular season games go on sale this morning at 8 a.m. at the arena box office.

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The Wild agreed to terms on a one-year contract with 23-year-old right winger Nick Palmieri. He has played in 36 games with Houston this season, tallying nine goals and ten assists. He played nine games with Minnesota last season.

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University of Minnesota sophomore forward Kyle Rau of Eden Prairie is this week's WCHA men's hockey Offensive Player of the Week Rau had a six-point week in a Golden Gopher sweep of Alaska-Anchorage over the weekend and a win over Notre Dame earlier in the week. He netted a hat trick in Saturday's win over the Seawolves. Wisconsin senior defenseman John Ramage of St. Louis is the league's Defensive Player of the Week, while Denver forward Quentin Shore is the Rookie of the Week.

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The Minnesota Timberwolves say All-Star forward Kevin Love underwent successful surgery on his broken hand yesterday in New York. Dr. Michelle Carlson at the Hospital for Special Surgery repaired the third and fourth metacarpal on Love's right hand. He suffered the injury at Denver on January 3rd after initially hurting his hand while doing knuckle push-ups in October. Love is expected to be out for another eight to ten weeks. The Wolves leading scorer and rebounder has appeared in just 18 games this season. The Wolves host the Clippers tomorrow night at the Target Center.

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Los Angeles guard Jamal Crawford scored 30 points off the bench on 11-of-20 shooting with five three-pointers as the Clippers rolled past the Rockets, 117-109, at the Toyota Center. Filling in for the injured Chris Paul for a second straight game, Eric Bledsoe posted 19 points with seven rebounds and five assists. Blake Griffin added 19 points and eight assists as Los Angeles moved to 30-and-9. The Clippers close out their three-game road trip tomorrow against the T'Wolves.

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The ninth-ranked University of Minnesota Golden Gophers men's basketball team is gearing up for a big match-up with fifth-ranked Michigan tomorrow night at Williams Arena. Minnesota suffered an 88-81 setback at Indiana on Saturday to drop to 3-1 in Big Ten play. The Gophers are 15-2 overall. The Wolverines come in having lost their first game of the year Sunday at Ohio State. Michigan is 16-1 overall and 3-1 in conference.

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St. Paul native Mike Bruesewitz, who grew up in Litchfield, scored ten points to key four Badgers in double-figures and Wisconsin upset second-ranked Indiana 64-59 at Assembly Hall in Bloomington last night. The unranked Badgers are the only Big Ten team still undefeated in conference play at 4-0. Princeton's Jared Berggren scored five points for Wisconsin, which is 13-4 overall and has won seven straight games this season and 11 in-a-row against the Hoosiers in the two teams' series.

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The Minnesota Vikings Adrian Peterson has been named the 2012 NFC Offensive Player of the Year as part of the annual NFL 101 Awards. Peterson will be honored at a dinner in Kansas City in March. He rushed for 2097 yards this season, falling just nine yards shy of the NFL's single season rushing record. He scored 12 touchdowns. Denver's Peyton Manning was named the AFC's Offensive Player of the Year. The NFC Defensive Player of the Year was San Francisco's Aldon Smith, while Houston's J.J. Watt won the AFC honor. Colts head coach Chuck Pagano and his offensive coordinator Bruce Arians won AFC Coach of the Year honors. Pete Carroll of Seattle was the NFC Coach of the Year.

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The Chicago Bears have reportedly found their next head coach. The Chicago Tribune is reporting that St. Louis Park native Marc Trestman will get the job. Trestman had previously been the head coach of the Canadian Football League's Montreal Alouettes since 2008. The 57-year-old won two Grey Cup's in his time in Montreal. He was an assistant coach in the NFL starting in the mid-80's with a number of teams, including the Vikings. This will be his first NFL head coaching job. He played football at the University of Minnesota for three seasons before transferring to Minnesota State-Moorhead for his final year. Trestman was selected over Colts offensive coordinator Bruce Arians and Seahawks offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell, a former Vikings assistant.

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Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator Gus Bradley, a Zumbrota native, is widely viewed as the top candidate to replace Andy Reid as the Philadelphia Eagles head coach. He got a second interview with the Eagles Tuesday. The 46-year-old Bradley played college football at North Dakota State.

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