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Rounding third, Jake Schelonka "low-fived" coach Brooks Repking to celebrate his game-breaking home run. Schelonka sent his ninth home run over Wade Stadium's center-field wall to ignite St.Scholastica's 14-4 romp against UWS. Photos by John Gilbert.

Some amazing individual performances highlighted this past week in sports — everywhere from red high school and college baseball and softball, to your video screens, where you might have watched some exciting Stanley Cup Playoff games, and even a couple of Timberwolves NBA playoff games. Yes, it’s true.

While we’re admittedly watching hockey and baseball and football, the Timberwolves lured me onto their opening-round playoff series with the Phoenix Suns. For the T-Wolves, making the playoffs was a big deal, but new coach Chris Finch became an involuntary casualty of a spectacular performance by the Timberwolves, when they completed a four-game sweep over the Suns with a nail-biting 122-116 victory. This was no pushover.

The Suns got 49 points from Devin Booker’s sizzling hot hand, and Kevin Durant scored 33. But when it looked like the Timberwolves were ripe to be had, Anthony Edwards took over and dominated the second half, scoring 31 of his 40 points in the second half, while Karl-Anthony Towns added 28. With 1:41 remaining, a Phoenix defender wedged Mike Conley off on the left sideline, Conley, at full speed, veered off the court and crashed heavily into Coach Finch, who was addressing his players on the bench with a clipboard in hand. Finch went down on top of a couple bystanders and suffered a ruptured right patellar tendon in his right knee and was helped from the court. Assistant Micah Nori took over for the final 1:41 and made it through, thanks to the determined finish by the Wolves.

In the NHL’s Stanley Cup, we watched a very determined effort by former UMD defenseman Mikey Anderson, but he and his Los Angeles Kings couldn’t duplicate the magical overtime victory over explosive Edmonton and lost a 1-0 thriller to the Oilers to send the series back to Edmonton with the Oilers up 3-1.

But the Minnesotan who was most spectacular was Brock Boeser, former Burnsville star who is a solid contributor to the Vancouver Canucks. He had been pretty well harnessed by the favored Nashville Predators in the first round of Cup games, although he scored the winner in the 2-1 Game 3 in Nashville, and he played a game worth his own personal showcase in Game 4 Sunday. Boeser scored the game’s first goal, but he saved his best for last — after the Predators had gained a 3-1 lead in the third period. Boeser scored again with 2:49 remaining in the third, then, with the goaltender pulled, he scored with 8 seconds left to forge a 3-3 tie and force overtime. His second, third and fourth goals of these playoffs for an extremely timely hat trick. Boeser had ben reunited with J.T. Miller on the first line, and Miller assisted on all three of Boeser’s goals.

The game-winner came from Elias Lindholm at 1:02 of overtime. But with all the media talk about how Boeser had disappeared in the series, well, we knew better.

Jake Schelonka sent his ninth home run over Wade Stadium's center-field wall to ignite St.Scholastica's 14-4 romp over UWS.

Closer to home, St. Scholastica met Wisconsin-Superior in the renewal of their annual Twin Ports Division III rivalry, and it was a tight, one-run ballgame until the Saints came up in the last of the third inning at Wade Stadium. Never mind the cold and harsh wind blowing in to make sure those in attendance couldn’t be comfortable, the Saints sent Jake Schelonka to the plate, and the fifth-year veteran didn’t disappoint, launching a high and distant shot over the 380-foot center-field wall for a 3-run home run that led to a 14-4 Sants victory.

Up at UMD’s Malosky Stadium, the UMD women’s softball team is getting accustomed to their makeshift field on the artificial football turf. Trying to finish with a flourish, the Builldogs turned Minot State’s long busied into an interminable trek by sweeping a doubleheader 2-0 and 6-0, then swept the University of Mary 11-0 and 4-1.

Nicole Schmitt socked her sixth home run to account for UMD's first three in an 11-0 romp over Minot.

Lauren Dixon, the stylish left-hander, got a win in each series, throwing a 2-hitter with 9 strikeouts and no walks in the 11-0 victory over Minot in a game halted after five innings. UMD jumped to a 4-0 lead in the first and made it 7-0 in the second, adding four more in the fourth. Junior Nicole Schmitt homered in the first, Elle Potts hit a 3-run homer in the second and catcher Kate Mohr homered in the fourth, another 3-run shot.

Senior left-hander Lauren Dixon blanked Minot 11-0 to improve her record to 21-5 going into playoffs.

With that sort of power, the Bulldogs also are senior-dominated, and play tight defense, which is more than enough to send them on their way to the Northern Sun tournament.

Kiana Bender made solid contact as UMD's No. 2 hitter.

Sadness carries the day

With all the excitement of national and local sports events, it is with all-consuming sadness that I also must report on the deaths of two people I was very close to. Al Shaver, the best hockey broadcaster in this or any other lifetime, was enjoying a long and beautiful retirement on the west coast of Vancouver Island when he died last week at age 96.

The other man was Donnie Dumais, age 74, who was born in Warroad, grew up in Silver Bay, got a hockey scholarship to play at Minnesota, and spent his life teaching and coaching in Fergus Falls, Fargo, and Desert Vista in Phoenix, Arizona.

Not many people knew Donnie, at least not like Al’s very public following, but the two of them had one thing in common. You cannot name anyone who ever met either one of them who didn’t feel like lifelong friends. I wrote about the North Stars through their whole time in Minnesota, and traveled with the team on the road.

Al and I would often end up going out for dinner at restaurants either he or I had heard about, and we became very close friends and associates. We both enjoyed great food, and we both sought out top-quality cigars. Al was the inimitable voice of the North Stars for their whole existence in Minnesota, and when they moved to Dallas, had stayed in his new-found home and did play-by-play of Gopher hockey games.

I wrote about Donnie Dumais when he was a fiercely competitive little speedster at Silver Bay High School, and then with the Gophers. Donnie made everyone laugh who was around him, and he could impersonate every teammate on those Gopher bus trips. His best, in my opinion, was his portrayal of a dialogue between brothers Brad and Bart Buetow, his teammates on the Gophers.

Like so many players I grew close to, Donnie and I drifted apart, but we reconnected a couple of years ago when he heard that I had suffered a sudden and unexpected cardiac arrest. He traveled a couple times a year from his home in Sartell, Minnesota, to Silver Bay to tend the family property, and he made it a point to find me and we met for lunch several times on his way up or back.

Last fall, he had some internal pain and went to a doctor in early October. He learned he had Stage 4 pancreatic cancer and was given four months to live. I was stunned, and I stayed in touch with Donnie to try to bolster his courage during that fight.

Born in Warroad, he and the family moved to Silver Bay when he was three and a half. They returned to Warroad each summer, and Donnie became close friends with Henry Boucha. As a teacher and coach for over 40 years, he taught everyone with a quick wit and a bit of sarcastic humor, and every student loved him.

Up until two weeks ago, the word sounded encouraging. The first two stages of chemotherapy worked quite well, and his condition was improving. The next one didn’t work as well, and a week ago, I got the word. Donnie had been taken to the hospital by ambulance for his next session of chemo, but after a long discussion with doctors and clergy, Donnie’s wife of 32 years, Melinda, sent a Facebook item out that said Donnie had made his own decision to forego any more chemo and to go into home hospice care.

In his obituary, Donnie wrote: “Don’t cry or mourn for me, for I had a great run at this thing called life. Instead, think of something I may have said or something we might have done together that made us laugh. Laugh about it, and when you’re done laughing, laugh some more, because laughter and humor is one o fGod’s greatest gifts to us.” His funeral will be at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, May 4, at First United Methodist Church in Sartell, Minnesota. Visitation wiki be at 10:30 a.m. at the church, and the ceremony is being handled by Benson Funeral Home in St. Cloud. Rest in peace, Donnie. And if you run into Al in the next life, make him laugh. You both deserve a lighthearted future.