The Fighting Hawks picked up a commitment this week from Union senior defenseman Ryan Sidorski to be the eighth and final blue liner, replacing Brady Ferner who is expected to sign a pro contract.

Sidorski, who is from the Buffalo, N.Y., suburb of Williamsville, will graduate from Union in June with a double major in neuroscience and economics. He has one year of college eligibility remaining.

The 6-foot-2, 215-pound defensive defenseman played 97 games at Union, tallying one goal and five points. Sidorski was fourth on Union in ice time last season, playing an average of 17 minutes, 55 seconds per game.

In a span of 1 minute, 28 seconds on Tuesday night at Xcel Energy Center, Blues winger Vladimir Tarasenko took complete control of the game with a pair of goals. He finished with a natural hat trick, and in the process, the Blues took complete control of the series.

Despite some incredible play from Kaprizov, especially in the opening 20 minutes, the Wild suffered a 5-2 loss to the Blues in Game 5 . They now trail 3-2 in the best-of-seven series and will be on the brink of elimination heading back to St. Louis for Game 6.

Quincy Patterson II's time at North Dakota State is over.

Two sources confirmed to WDAY Sports that the dual-threat quarterback entered the NCAA transfer portal Monday morning.

The 6-foot-3, 242-pound Patterson originally came to NDSU as a transfer from Virginia Tech, a Division I FBS program where he spent the first three years of his collegiate career.

On nine separate occasions this season, the Wild erased a multi goal deficit, and parlayed into a comeback win. That impressive total tied them with the Florida Panthers for the most in the league.

Thus, with the Wild giving the St. Louis Blues everything they could handle down the stretch in Game 4 of their playoff series, it felt like only a matter of time before they leveled the score.

It was one of those moments, of when you know, you just know.

"That's really all you can say is, wow that's awesome," said 15-year-old Sam Laurila.

When Laurila laced up his first pair of hockey skates, there was no surprise that the game just came easy to him.

"I think just with my dad playing growing up, he just brought me to the rink and I started skating around and I just liked it ever since. I think it clicked right away, it stuck with me my whole life. I like it, I love it, actually," said Sam.

All the Minnesota Wild needed was a break to get back in the series with the St. Louis Blues.

They got it in Game 2 on Wednesday night at the Xcel Energy Center. Literally.

With the Wild struggling to get anything going nearly 10 minutes into the contest, Blues defenseman Robert Bortuzzo broke his stick in the defensive zone. As a result, the puck squirted away from Bortuzzo, and landed right in front of Jordan Greenway.

That proved to be just the break the Wild needed. A few seconds after Greenway scooped up the loose puck, Joel Eriksson uncorked a shot that beat Blues goaltender Ville Husso clean.

After 37 games on the road, NDSU baseball cruises to a 10-0 win over Mayville State in home opener.

Druw Sackett set the tone early for NDSU hitting a home run in the third inning, sparking a four run inning for the Bison.

NDSU will go back on the road to Miami for its series this weekend.

Four days after parting ways with Scott Langer, the Fargo Force hired Nick Oliver as head coach.

Oliver spent the last four seasons as an assistant coach for St. Cloud State men's hockey. During his time as assistant coach, he helped lead the Huskies to a NCHC regular season championship and a Frozen Four appearance.

Life has come full circle for Oliver, as he played for the Force from 2009 to 2011.

Wild winger Marcus Foligno toppled to the ice after absorbing a nasty knee-on-knee hit in the regular-season finale against the Colorado Avalanche. He stayed down for more than a minute writhing in pain. He staggered to his skates and needed to be helped down the tunnel.

In that moment, it looked like Foligno's postseason might be over before it even got started. Yet there he was on Sunday morning at Xcel Energy Center, skating around with his teammates on the eve of Game 1 against the St. Louis Blues.

How the heck did Foligno recover so quickly?

Kwesi Adofo-Mensah had indicated he was not opposed to trading down in the NFL Draft in the right situation.

That situation came about on Thursday night. Minnesota traded the 12th overall pick to Detroit along with pick number 46, in exchange for picks number 32, 34, and 66.

With that 32nd pick, Minnesota elected to draft for defense, selecting Georgia safety Lewis Cine.