NEWARK, N.J. – Ask anyone what is fun about a visit to northern New Jersey, and they’re more than likely going to draw a blank.

The same goes for the Minnesota Wild, who found little to enjoy in their lone visit to the den of the Devils this season.

Off to the hottest start in the NHL this season, New Jersey scored in each period and shut down the Wild’s suddenly struggling power play, winning 4-1 on Wednesday and handing Minnesota its fourth loss in the past five games.

Minnesota goalie Filip Gustavsson kept it close but lacked offensive support, making 32 saves as he fell to 2-4-0 this season.

The Wild’s rare highlight came just past the midway point of the third, with Minnesota trailing by three, when Matt Boldy wired a long-range shot just under the crossbar to spoil New Jersey’s shutout bid. It was the fifth goal of the season for Boldy, tying him for the team lead with Kirill Kaprizov.

Minnesota fell to 3-4-1 overall, while the Devils are now 6-1-0.

It was mostly a defensive battle for the Wild in the early part of the game. They killed a Devils power play in the opening three minutes, and got some puck luck as well. New Jersey center Dawson Mercer had a wide open net to shoot at, with Gustavsson down after making a save, but Mercer’s shot deflected off the shaft of Marco Rossi’s stick and over the net.

Gustavsson stopped the first 13 shots sent his way before New Jersey winger Paul Cotter got his first goal of the season, slipping a low shot between the goalie’s knees, following Connor Brown’s set-up pass from below the goal line. Minnesota was outshot 14-7 in the opening 20 minutes.

The goalie was again tested early in the middle frame when Wild captain Jared Spurgeon was stripped of the puck at the blue line, springing New Jersey star Jack Hughes on a breakaway. But Gustavsson made a pad save to squelch the scoring opportunity.

The reprieve was temporary, as the Devils doubled the lead before the period’s midway point when defenseman Brenden Dillon sent a puck in from the blue line and it fooled the goalie over his left shoulder.

Minnesota’s power play — which was the league’s best after four games this season but has notably cooled off lately — got an opportunity later in the second. New Jersey’s penalty killers, who have been the NHL’s best this season, were having none of it, negating the man advantage without allowing a shot on goal. The Wild’s second power play produced shots, but no goals as they headed to the second intermission down 2-0.

And when Minnesota took a third-period penalty, the Devils’ power play needed just three seconds to make it a three-goal lead, as Arseny Gritsyuk scored the first of his career with a wrist shot immediately following the faceoff to the right of Gustavsson.

Jesper Bratt added an empty-net goal for New Jersey, which makes its lone visit to Minnesota this season on Monday, Jan. 12.

It was the final night of a five-game road trip — their second-longest of the season — in which the Wild went 1-3-1. With Devils mainstay goalie Jacob Markstrom sidelined due to a lower body injury, third-stringer Nico Daws made his first start of the season for New Jersey, stopping 29 shots.

Following their extended road trip, the Wild return to Grand Casino Arena for a six-game homestand, beginning on Saturday when they host the Utah Mammoth with a 5 p.m. CT opening faceoff.

Briefly

The Devils’ broadcast team on MSG Network for Wednesday night included Minnesota native Rachel Herzog and retired goaltender Cory Schneider, who was very familiar to Wild fans a decade or so ago. Herzog was a standout defender at Hill-Murray and at St. Cloud State, where she studied broadcasting before joining the New Jersey TV team a year ago. Schneider, who hung up the pads in 2023 after more than 400 NHL games, was the backup for the Vancouver Canucks in the early 2010s. Vancouver starter Roberto Luongo often struggled in games versus the Wild in St. Paul, meaning that Schneider would commonly enter in the second period after Luongo was yanked. Before Wednesday’s game, Schneider joked that the Canucks eventually just named him the starter in road games versus the Wild.

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Gophers women’s basketball forward Mallory Heyer announced Wednesday she plans to enter the NCAA transfer portal.

The Chaska native was on the verge of beginning her senior season at Minnesota on Nov. 4 but will leave the program instead.

“Thank you Minnesota for the past 3 years,” Heyer wrote on X. “I am forever grateful for the opportunity to represent my home state and wear Minnesota across my chest. Thank you to everyone who supported me along the way.

“For personal reasons, I will be closing this chapter of my career at Minnesota and entering the transfer portal to find a new home as a graduate transfer. God’s Plan!”

Heyer started all 36 games last season, leading the team with 8.1 rebounds per game and contributing 8.6 points.

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Mounds Park Academy was peaking at the right time entering the state boys soccer tournament.

Scoring just 21 goals in its 15 regular-season games, the Panthers scored 11 times in winning three straight section games, including Masen Donohoo’s overtime winner in a victory over St. Croix Prep in the final.

However, the good vibes came to an end Wednesday in a 2-1 double-overtime loss to No. 2 Stewartville in a Class 1A quarterfinal at Farmington High School.

A failed clear led to Cole Kropp scoring with 5:03 remaining in the second extra period, sending the Tigers (20-0-0) to a semifinal match at 7 p.m. Tuesday in U.S. Bank Stadium. They’ll play the winner of Thursday’s quarterfinal between No. 3 St. Cloud Cathedral and unseeded Cristo Rey Jesuit.

“I was really hoping to end it right then and there. I’m confident with our team with (penalty kicks), but you just want to get it over with as soon as possible,” Kropp said.

Wiktor Sroka nearly won it for the unseeded Panthers (7-8-4) in the first overtime but was robbed on a diving save by Stewartville goaltender Brecken Rester.

“I thought that was the game,” Mounds Park Academy coach Mike Velin said.

“It was great shot, but a better save. That’s what it comes down to at the end of the day,” Kropp said.

Undoubtedly, the loss will sting for a while, but Velin is proud of what the Panthers showed.

“The public outside of our team looked at our record, our goals-against differential and would think what are they doing in state,” he said. “If that was the only thing people looked at, they’d be missing the story of who we are, how we build up. … At the end of the day, what we talked about was don’t peak on the first game, but peak in sections. We were really starting to show who we were and what we could be.”

Leyton Hudson scored midway through the first half for Mounds Park Academy, who was in the tournament for the first time since 2010.

Sroka sprinted down the right side and sent a pass to the box where Hudson’s redirect from about 10 yards out found the back of the net in the 19th minute.

The Panthers gave up the first goal in their last two section games.

“Previous teams would get very dejected, and this team found resilience, they found a way to understand it’s an 80-minute game, there’s a lot of opportunities and you never give up,” Velin said. “For the seniors, the heart they showed is going to carry through with them for the rest of their lives.”

Ranked No. 6 in the final state soccer poll, Stewartville has allowed just 10 goals this season, no more than one in a game.

Cody Clark scored early in the second half for Stewartville, who scored at least two goals in every match this season.

Rester made a diving save less than a minute later, and Owen Johnston — Mounds Park Academy’s goaltender — snared a Clark shot about two minutes thereafter to keep the game 1-1. Johnston added a big save against Kropp, a 29-goal scorer, about 10 minutes later.

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By MEAD GRUVER

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Investigators in Wyoming sought to identify two men they believe left a homemade bomb in front of the state Capitol, causing the building’s evacuation after a passerby found the object and brought it inside.

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The bomb, at a time of heightened political angst in the U.S., put the sleepy capital of the least-populated state on edge for awhile, with drones overhead and officers with bomb-sniffing dogs combing the Capitol grounds. But a day later, things appeared back to normal.

No security was visible at the 135-year-old, sandstone building where visitors have always been able to more or less wander among the state’s most powerful elected officials at will.

“It’s a fantastic reflection of almost a happiness to trust people. Which is positive and should be retained,” observed English tourist Jaume Vilar, who was visiting the building with his teenage son.

The device was left sometime early Tuesday. Described by Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation Commander Ryan Cox on Wednesday as a “deconstructed live firework munition with a fuse” measuring less than a foot long, it was not rigged to explode remotely.

“It would’ve had to been lit with a lighter, or similar-type fashion,” Cox said.

It was not in a bag or other container when put on the state seal, a round, 10-foot-wide decoration of inlaid stone midway between the Capitol front steps and the street, sometime between 4 a.m. and 8 a.m.. The seal is cordoned off behind a chain.

The unidentified passerby, whom authorities soon ruled out as a suspect, brought the object into the building. An evacuation ensued at 9:45 a.m. and lasted all day.

Those evacuated included Gov. Mark Gordon, who along with the state treasurer and state auditor was in a committee meeting in a nearby basement-level conference room. Workers in two nearby state office buildings sheltered in place until being allowed to leave in the afternoon.

Police reviewed security video and, working with the FBI and other agencies, focused Wednesday on identifying and finding two men who appeared in the security-camera footage to be working together to leave the device.

A description of the two will be released after agents take time to study the video images, Cox said.

The device was taken off-site and rendered safe. Wyoming has had no significant episodes of political violence in recent memory. Cox said he was unaware of any recent threats made against Wyoming officials or the Capitol, nor of any similar incidents in surrounding states.

A state trooper sweeps the grounds of the Wyoming Capitol after a suspected improvised explosive device (IED) was found at the state Capitol on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025, in Cheyenne, Wyo. (Milo Gladstein/The Wyoming Tribune Eagle via AP)

Yet the incident happened at a sensitive time.

Millions took part in “No Kings” rallies against President Donald Trump in cities and towns across the U.S. on Saturday. Six weeks ago, a shooter killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk while he spoke to a crowd at a university in neighboring Utah.

Nationwide, protesters have challenged the Trump administration’s increased efforts to deport migrants.

Wyoming Highway Patrol troopers have been stationed in the Capitol in the past and checked visitor bags in the days after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. No security was visible in the building on Wednesday, however.

The Great Seal of the State of Wyoming, where a homemade bomb was left on Tuesday that caused the Wyoming Capitol to be evacuated, is seen Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025, in Cheyenne, Wyo. (AP Photo/Mead Gruver)

The footsteps of a small number of state employees, one and two at a time, echoed in otherwise vacant corridors that date to 1890 and reopened in 2019 after a three-year renovation. Custodians ran vacuum cleaners, and tourists picked up informational pamphlets from a display.

Vilar, a Londoner stopping in at the Capitol during a road trip from New York to visit family in Denver, was unaware of the bomb left at the building the day before. He wondered whether the daylong evacuation was an overreaction but was surprised that somebody had picked up the device.

“Don’t ever fiddle with things that are potentially, you know, might be a bomb. Just leave it alone. Let the right people deal with it. Don’t try to be smart,” Vilar said. “But then the other thing, of course, is there are always threats and worries and things like that.”

The Great Seal of the State of Wyoming, where the bomb was left, depicts a rancher with a rope and pistol and a miner with a pick standing on either side of a robed woman and banner reading “Equal Rights.” Wyoming was first to grant women the right to vote when it became a state in 1890.