As opening day looms and Joe Mauer’s contract situation remains unresolved, many fans find themselves on the verge of panic. While much of the discussion revolves around why the Twins should or should not sign the reigning AL MVP, one point is often overlooked: it makes no sense for Joe Mauer to leave Minnesota.

Here are is why…

1. The Money Difference is Negligible
Sure Mauer would make more money on the open market than he could here. That means he’d play in either New York, Boston or Los Angeles. With Jorge Posada turning 39 in August and the most aggressive front office in baseball, you just know he’d end up pin stripes.

Whether he makes $20 million or $25 million a year, Mauer will get by. Everyone knows that your dollar goes further in the Twin Cities than it does on Manhattan. And if you’ve ever been to the Big Apple, you know there’s more excitement there, but it’s much easier on your sanity to live here. Which leads me to my second point….

2. The Amount of Pressure Is Not
Despite his unbelievable 2009 season, Mauer’s run with the Twins has had its potholes. He’s missed significant time with knee and back injuries and has hit just 72 homeruns in 2,994 plate appearances. And yet everyone is begging the small market Twins to pay him $20 million annually for the next 5-10 years. This place is unapologetically provincial.

If Mauer can’t stay healthy in New York, he’ll be crucified be the press. He only needs to walk across the clubhouse and ask Carl Pavano about that. Mauer has been treated with kid gloves by the Minnesota press. He’s always friendly, personable and respectful, but seldom says anything interesting or insightful. In New York, that won’t do. The coverage with increase tenfold and he’ll be badgered to say something.

In Minnesota both the fans and the media have respected Mauer’s privacy. He’s the most eligible bachelor in the state’s history and yet his dating life never seeps in the tabloids. That’s because we don’t have tabloid’s here.

3. Money Can’t Buy Love
Watching Justin Morneau and Mauer blossom into MVPs and leaders has been a beautiful process. They genuinely seem to be decent people and best friends. Both are simple guys who don’t appear to need the excesses of fame and wealth to be happy. Mauer would assuredly regret leaving his friend behind.

Many players go to All Star games, a few are MVPs and even fewer reach the Hall of Fame, but almost nobody gets the opportunity Mauer has been given by playing for the Twins: doing it all in his hometown. If Mauer stays healthy, tacks on a few more batting titles, wins another MVP or two, avoids major controversy and helps his team win a World Series, he will reach a level of reverence reserved for only a handful of athletes in the history of sports.

Seth Helgeson couldn’t have picked a better time for his first career goal as the freshman scored with 7:02 left in regulation to lift Minnesota to a 4-2 win over North Dakota and even the teams’ Western Collegiate Hockey Association first round playoff series.

The Gophers trailed 2-1 with less than eight minutes left before Jacob Cepis and Helgeson tallied goals just 48 seconds apart to put Minnesota ahead. Jordan Schroeder added an empty net goal to seal the win and force a deciding game on Sunday at 7 p.m. in Grand Forks. The winner will advance to the WCHA Final Five. North Dakota won Friday’s opening game of the series 6-0. It is the third time in four years Minnesota will play a third game in its opening round series. The Gophers have lost in the opening round just once in the last 32 years, coming in 1998 at Minnesota Duluth.

Minnesota avoided being swept in the first round of the WCHA playoffs for the first time since 1973 and kept alive its hopes for reaching the WCHA Final Five for the 12th consecutive year. The Gophers are now 18-18-2 overall, while North Dakota is 21-12-5 and looking for its eighth straight trip to the Final Five next weekend at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

The Sioux outshot the Gophers 43-26 for the game, but Alex Kangas made 41 saves for Minnesota. The Gophers also finished three-for-four on the power play and stopped North Dakota on all three of its man advantage chances.

North Dakota owned a 14-3 advantage in shots in the opening period, but Minnesota scored the only goal during a four-on-three power play. Mike Hoeffel scored by tipping in a puck in front of the net at the 17:20 mark of the period. Cepis and Cade Fairchild had assists on the play. It was Minnesota’s only scoring chance of the period and North Dakota also had only one scoring opportunity.

The Gophers’ lead held until the 7:03 mark of the second period when the Sioux tied the game on a goal by Corban Knight. North Dakota’s Darcy Zajac won the faceoff back to Danny Kristo, who put a shot on goal that Kangas saved, but the puck bounced free to Knight on the opposite side of the net and he put it away for the goal.

Kangas had a big save a few minutes later and appeared to bring the puck across the line in his glove, but the officials reviewed the play and ruled the play dead before Kangas pulled the puck back after being hit by a crashing forward. North Dakota outshot the Gophers 14-11 for the period.

Minnesota had a terrific scoring chance with the game tied and 10:25 left in the third period when Cepis had a wide open breakaway and got a forehand shot on goal, but North Dakota goaltender Brad Eidsness came up with a spectacular pad save to keep the game tied.

North Dakota converted just over a minute later with a goal from Matt Frattin at the 10:44 mark. Chris VandeVelde took the puck along the left boards and behind the net before passing out to Frattin for a one-timer at the right faceoff dot.

It took Minnesota less than three minutes to get the lead back. Cepis got the first goal with a power play goal at the 12:10 mark with a shot from the top of the right faceoff circle that beat Eidsness between his legs. Mike Hoeffel and Jake Hansen assisted the play.

Helgeson picked up the go-ahead goal with a long shot from the point through a screen for his first career point. Nico Sacchetti won the faceoff back to the freshman for the shot that Eidsness never saw and put the Gophers ahead.

North Dakota pulled Eidsness for an extra attacker in the final minute, but was called for a too many men on the ice penalty with 49 seconds left, negating any comeback chances.

Helgeson wasn’t the only Minnesota player to record his first career point as Kangas picked up an assist on Schroeder’s empty net goal. The junior goaltender made a save and then passed the puck ahead to Tony Lucia, who fed Schroeder for the easy score.

Sunday’s game will air on Fox Sports North’s alternate channel. A complete list of stations where the game can be seen is below.

The madness known as NFL free agency began early today and has already garnered a lot of attention. The hated Bears landed the biggest prize in DE Julius Peppers and snared one of my favorite Vikings, RB Chester Taylor. Not good.

What have the Vikings been up to? Not much. Because of the quirky Collective Bargaining Agreement and the team’s trip to the NFC title game, the Vikes are not allowed to sign an unrestricted free agent unless they lose one of their own. Now that Taylor’s gone, it’s game-on.

The team is reportedly interested in former Colts CB Marlin Jackson. Jackson, a 1st round pick by Indy in 2005, has appeared in just 11 games the past two seasons because of knee injuries. I like the idea of the Vikes landing a cornerback, but I am not sure Jackson is the guy. Another option that might warrant consideration is Lito Sheppard, who was recently released by the Jets. Sheppard, a 2-time Pro Bowler, spent the first 7 years of his career in Philadelphia and we know Brad Childress loooooooooves him some former Eagles.

Despite losing Taylor and being relegated to bit players in free agency, the Vikings have accomplished a couple of productive things this week. By putting a 1st round tender on DE Ray Edwards and a 3rd round tender on QB Tarvaris Jackson, the team has all but guaranteed both will be in purple next season.

That being said, the Vikings have a lot of work to do this off-season and if I were running the team (like that will ever happen), these would be the top 3 things on my to-do list:

1. Revamp the Secondary
We all love Antoine Winfield and for good reason, the guy is everything you want a football player to be - tough, smart, intense and talented – but he aint getting any younger. Now is the time to transition him over to free safety. Madieu Williams has been a bust; I’ve seen enough of him. Plug Winfield in at free safety and let Tyrell Johnson and Jamarca Sanford battle it out at strong safety. With Cedric Griffin coming of a torn ACL, I’d sign a veteran like Jackson or Sheppard, bring back Benny Sapp and take a corner in the first three rounds.

2. Dump Sage Rosenfels and Draft a QB
You have to think Favre is coming back and if he doesn’t you have Jackson as insurance. Yes, most fans hate to hear that, but T-Jack is better than he is given credit for. Rosenfels meanwhile is 32, has never done anything in the NFL and was horrible during the preseason in 2009. Get a low round pick for Sage and use a higher choice on a promising signal caller.

3. Replace Chester Taylor
I am a sucker for big names. I think Ladanian Tomlinson would complement Adrian Peterson well – he is a great receiver out of the backfield and could thrive in a reduced rushing role. And you know he’s got a chip on his shoulder right about now. Brian Westbrook would also fit the bill and he’s got that former Eagle thing going for him, but he just can’t stay healthy. While he has more upside than LT, Tomlinson is more reliable and reliability wins out here.

University of Minnesota - Duluth Men’s hockey team bounced back from Friday nights 3-2 loss to the visiting University of Minnesota Gophers in high fashion as they shutout the Gophers 3-0 behind the stellar play of Sophomore goalie Brady Hjelle. Hjelle recorded his first carrier shutout stopping all 22 shots on way to a victory and guarantee home ice for the first round of the WCHA playoffs. Bulldogs head coach Scott Sandelin was pleased with tonight’s performance, “I thought we went out and really played well. I liked the way our guys bounced back from last night even though I thought we played well in that game to.” The Bulldogs where also led by Jr. forward Justin Fontaine who scored his 20th and 21st goals of the season to help complete the shutout. UMD is on the road next weekend in Anchorage , AKto finish off the regular season. Story by Tom Treloar/Photo by Jay Wilcox

The Gopher men’s basketball team dropped a heart breaker Wednesday night to 3rd ranked Purdue as Devoe Joseph missed a game winning shot at the buzzer. The Gophers stormed back from a 13 point deficit and had the lead for much of the second half. Ralph Sampson finally played like his old man scoring a career high 21 points while grabbing 7 rebounds. Gophers lose 59-58. Photos by Tom Dahlin               Photo Gallery