Eagan High School, UM hockey superstar and Olympic gold medalist Natalie Darwitz was inducted into the International Ice Hockey Federation.

Critical decisions, and the timing of those split-second decisions, were enormously responsible for some of the biggest outcomes in the world’s biggest sports events Memorial Day weekend. 

It was as subtle as it was huge at the Indianapolis 500, where 300,000 fans waited through 4 hours of rain before enduring a virtual replay of last year’s finish, virtually identical to last year’s victory as Josef Newgarden became back-to-back winer.

Maybe most Minnesota sports fans weren’t glued to their television sets to watch auto racing, from the Monaco Grand Prix starting at 8 am to the exhausting end of the Indy 500, at 7 pm.

Instead, Minnesota loyalists were probably waiting with fingers crossed to see if the Timberwolves could rise up from two opening playoff losses to the Denver Mavericks when the teams played a critical Game 3 in Dallas. 

But, just as in the first two, the Timberwolves played with inspiration for much of the game, this time coming from behind to wrest the lead from Dallas in the third quarter. But for the third straight game, the young and exuberant new star Anthony (Ant) Edwards, who had led the Timberwolves to series victories earlier in the playoffs, disintegrated when it mattered most. 

So did Karl-Anthony Towns — both of them faltering as the Dallas tandem of Luka Doncic and Kylie Irving put up matching 33-point games with splendid fourth quarters. Dallas pulled away to a 116-107 crusher to take a 3-0 lead in games.

The key decisions were mainly strategically, by the coaching staff, in how to cover Doncic, and mostly by Edwards, who became totally impatient about when to shoot and when to pass. He scored 8 straight points in the third-quarter rally, then couldn’t hit the proverbial broad side of a barn in the fourth, scoring only four more points. 

Towns, meanwhile, was 0-for-8 shooting 3s. In the Dallas backcourt, Irving was 10-of-20 hitting 3-6 of his 3s, while Doncic — who hit the game-winning 3 to win Game 2 — made 10 of 20 and was 5-11 from 3-point range.

At Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, 13,104 gathered to see if the amazing PHWL Minnesota outfit could claim its third straight victory and beat Boston for the first Professional Women’s Hockey League tournament championship. And they did — when former Gophers star Taylor Heise came roaring in from wide right and rushed the net. 

At the last instant, cutting at the sharpest in traffic in the slot. At that same instant, former UMD star Sidney Brodt swatted in desperation, whacking Heise on the right leg just at the moment when it would disrupt her balance. Heise slid hard, with no alternative but to crash into goaltender Aerie Frankel — but the one-timer by Jaques had hit the net a millisecond before the crash in the crease.

The officials ruled it was a goal, and the Minnesota team poured off the bench with a 1-0 double-overtime championship-clinching victory. 
However, the officials decided to review the call, and quite surprisingly declared that goaltender

interference had contributed to the winning goal, overlooking two factors — Brodt had ultimately caused the final trajectory for the impact, and that the impact didn’t interfere with the goalie’s ability to make the save because the puck was already in the net.

So they gathered at center ice for another face-off, and just more than a minute later, at 18:36 of the second overtime, Alina Muller scored with a partially-screened shot from the slot at the other end, against Minnesota goaltender Nicole Hensley. 

So instead of seeing a playoff championship, the big crowd filed out and the two teams headed for Boston tied 2-2 for the deciding game in the best-of-5 series.

On the same day, Sunday, the International Ice Hockey Federation announced the official induction of Natalie Darwitz to the IIHF Hall of Fame. The three women doing the between-periods commentary on the Boston-Minnesota playoff game gushed over Darwitz, who is the general manager of the Minnesota women’s team, but made her name as one of Minnesota high school hockey’s first female stars. 

Natalie scored 85 goals as an eighth-grader at Eagan High School, and after a brilliant five-year career there, she was a star at the University of Minnesota and on the first several U.S. Women’s Olympic teams — including a couple of gold medals.

The women commentators were correct in how spectacular Darwitz was as a player and her unyielding competitiveness, but they conveniently overlooked the fact that she never won the Patty Kazmaier Award as the top player in women’s college hockey. 

In that category, she falls in line with UMD standouts Jenny Potter, Maria Rooth and Caroline Oullette — all of whom were bypassed as the committee gave the first seven Kazmaier awards to very good players from Eastern colleges, who never won the NCAA titles being accumulated by UMD and Minnesota.
With all the hype and fund-raising done in men’s hockey to set up our U.S. international teams, here is a question. Who won the IIHF World Championship? 

How about Chechia (formerly the Czech Republic), which beat Switzerland 2-0 when David Pastrnak scored midway through the third period, and David Kampf hit an open net. 
And if Czechia won Gold and Switzerland claimed Silver, the Bronze medal went to – Sweden, which beat Canada 4-2 in the Bronze Medal Game. 

So the much-heralded Canada and U.S. teams come home from Prague without a medal.
The Monaco Grand Prix upheld its reputation as the most boring Formula 1 race of the season. Stunningly beautiful as the street course winds through the streets of Monaco, along the hundreds of anchored pleasure craft in the Mediterranean harbor, there is simply no room to pass and the “race” becomes nothing more than a parade. 

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari driver who grew up and lives in Monaco, won the pole with a spirited qualifying run, and he led from start to finish to capture his first F1 race of the season. 

Oscar Piastri was second in a McLaren, and Carlos Sainz was third in the other Ferrari, while Lando Norris was fourth in the other McLaren, followed by George Russell in a Mercedes and — back in sixth — series leader and defending champion Max Verstappen.

The Indy 500 was on ABC as well as ESPN, and to fill during its opening rain delay, they decided to show last year’s Indy 500, when Roger Penske driver Josef Newgarden was passed by Marcus Ericsson with a lap to go, but drafted and repasted Ericsson on the final lap, then held on for the closest Indy finish ever. 

It was an exciting interlude, and then they started this year’s race. As if to duplicate the 2023 finish, a half-dozen contenders created a stream into the closing laps. Newgarden was among them, as was Alexander Rossi, Pato O’Ward, Chuck Dixon, and others. 

O’Ward, trying to become the first Mexican driver to ever win Indy, chased Newgarden as the two edged ahead of the field.

During the last five laps, Newgarden and O’Ward swapped the lead again and again, visually every lap. 
With two laps to go, O’Ward pulled out of the draft and went for the lead once again, but he apparently decided to wait! He pulled back in behind, gaining the draft, then he pulled a slingshot move to pass Newgarden for the lead at the start of the final lap — Lap 200. 

But Newgarden, instead of being blindsided, tucked in briefly, then made his move and regained the lead on the outside. 

As the two sped down the main straight, O’Ward pulled close, but couldn’t quite get the right chance to try for one final move, and Newgarden repeated as winner. 
It’s the ultimate second-guess, but maybe if O’Ward had gone with his pass attempt with two laps left, he might have had a bit more room at the finish. Instead, he settled for second.