DALLAS – In a rookie NHL season that has already been filled with new experiences, Minnesota Wild defenseman Zeev Buium got two more “firsts” on Tuesday in North Texas.

While back-to-back games are common in college hockey, they’re usually at the same arena, or a home-and-home series an hour or two away, at most.

Tuesday’s game in Dallas – an eventual 5-2 loss to the Stars – was the second game of back-to-backs, involving a Monday night game in Minnesota, a late-night flight to Texas, getting into a hotel bed at around 3 a.m., then playing a road game 18 hours or so later.

“I’ve never done anything like that, but at the same time, I think it was a late game today. We had a lot of time to rest, and those are never an excuse to lose or not perform well,” said Buium, who had the primary assist on both Wild goals. “You’ve got to perform every day, so obviously it’s tough. But I thought we came out in the third, and that’s how we need to play moving forward.”

The second new experience came in the third period, with the Wild trailing 3-0 and in desperate need of a spark. The ignitor came in the form of fellow defenseman Jake Middleton delivering a bone-crunching hit – legally – to Stars forward Matt Duchene in the neutral zone.

The hit touched off a fight, and ended with Minnesota on a power play, which would produce their first goal of the night. But Middleton’s play, first with his shoulder and then with his fists, was the spark that lit the Wild’s push at a comeback.

“Me personally, I felt I got electrified by it,” Buium said of the hit, and the fight. “In college and juniors, I never really got to see anybody fight or no one really laid that big a hit. So to see that was pretty electrifying, and definitely got the entire group going and was the start of why our third period was good.”

Duchene left the game and did not return. On Wednesday, Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said the forward was listed as day to day with an upper body injury sustained as a result of the hit. In the postgame scrum, while happy with the win, the Stars’ coach was not enamored of Middleton’s play.

“I didn’t like the hit. I thought it was high,” Gulutzan said, thinking the officials could have whistled the Wild defender for head contact. “My history here is they usually run on the side of (being) more aggressive in their call there, but they didn’t. So they saw it differently.”

In fact, replays showed that Duchene was carrying the puck, making him fair game for a hit, and Middleton’s shoulder struck the Stars’ forward squarely in the upper chest, not the head.

While making no apologies for the play, Middleton expressed his wishes to see Duchene back on the ice soon.

“It’s a tough position because I know he doesn’t see me and I’m still trying to take the body on him,” Middleton said after the game. “I know he didn’t come back to the game. I hope he’s OK. There was no ill intent towards the hit. It was just kind of a perfect storm really the way it transpired.”

And for the Wild, it was the perfect spark they needed to get some fire back on the bench and ignite a rally, even if it eventually fell short.

Tarasenko seeking more

With the second assist on a power play marker that made Tuesday night’s game in Dallas a one-goal affair with around seven minutes remaining in the third, veteran Vladimir Tarasenko has now recorded four points in four games with his sixth NHL team.

But just a bit into his first season in Minnesota, the renowned goal-scorer admits he has to contribute more to the overall cause, especially with the Wild now going three full games without a five-on-five goal.

“We knew we would have a hard game. They always start hot here, and obviously myself and all of us need to find ways to play better on the five-on-five,” Tarasenko said. “Power play is nice, and thankful it’s kind of working now. But we need to improve our five-on-five game.”

While the question remains of what Tarasenko has left in the tank at age 33, as he approaches 1,000 NHL games, to go along with two Stanley Cups, on his resume, the Wild coach likes what he has seen so far.

“I see lots of good in this game. I think he’s a good player. I think he plays a winning style of hockey,” coach John Hynes said, vowing to work with Tarasenko during the two-day break between games in Dallas and Washington.

“Now that we have a few days in between, I know he’s gonna sit down and we’ll show some individual clips with him and try to help him,” Hynes said. “But I don’t think he’s too far off. I just think there’s maybe a couple things we can help him with and get his opinion on things and see if we can get it up and running a little bit quicker.”

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By EDNA TARIGAN

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia detected traces of radioactive cesium 137 at a clove plantation as it searches for the source of radioactive contamination that forced recalls of shrimp and spices exported to the U.S., a task force investigating the issue said Wednesday.

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U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials blocked the import of all spices processed by PT Natural Java Spice of Indonesia in September after federal inspectors detected cesium 137 in a shipment of cloves sent to California.

That was the second food product from Indonesia to be recalled from sale due to radioactive contamination this year, following a recall of shrimp from another Indonesian company in August.

The task force found cesium 137 at a clove plantation in Lampung province. It also inspected clove processing facilities in Surabaya city in East Java province and another plantation in Central Java province, working with Indonesia’s Nuclear Energy Regulatory Agency.

“We can confirm that contamination has been found on plantations in Lampung. The contamination was found in limited quantities and has not spread to other areas or commodities,” said Bara Hasibuan, the task force’s spokesperson in a written statement.

The nuclear regulatory agency recommended a temporary halt to sales of contaminated clove products pending further laboratory testing, while investigators continue to track the source of the contamination.

“The government is moving quickly to localize this contamination so that it does not spread to other areas. The public and businesses are advised to remain calm and wait for the official laboratory test results,” Hasibuan said.

The task force traced the earlier contamination of shrimp to a steel factory in the Cikande industrial estate, around 2 miles from the PT Bahari Makmuri Sejati shrimp processing facility, which sends millions of pounds of shrimp to the U.S. each year.

Experts in nuclear radiation agree that health risks are low since only very low level of radioactivity were identified, but they say it’s important to determine the contamination’s source and share that information with the public.

By SEAN MURPHY

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma’s new public schools superintendent announced Wednesday he is rescinding a mandate from his predecessor that forced schools to place Bibles in classrooms and incorporate the book into lesson plans for students.

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Superintendent Lindel Fields said in a statement he has “no plans to distribute Bibles or a Biblical character education curriculum in classrooms.” The directive last year from former Superintendent Ryan Walters drew immediate condemnation from civil rights groups and prompted a lawsuit from a group of parents, teachers and religious leaders that is pending before the Oklahoma Supreme Court. It was to have applied to students in grades 5 through 12.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt appointed Fields to the superintendent’s post after Walters resigned last month to take a job in the private sector.

Jacki Phelps, an attorney for the Oklahoma State Department of Education, said she intends to notify the court of the agency’s plan to rescind the mandate and seek a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

Attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit said they were encouraged by Fields’ decision and plan to discuss next steps with their clients.

“The attempts to promote religion in the classroom and the abuses of power that the Oklahoma State Department of Education engaged in under Walters’ tenure should never happen in Oklahoma or anywhere in the United States again,” the attorneys said in a statement.

Many schools districts across the state had decided not to comply with the Bible mandate.

FILE – Copies of the Bible are displayed Aug. 12, 2024, at the Bixby High School library in Bixby, Okla. (AP Photo/Joey Johnson, File)

A spokeswoman for the state education department, Tara Thompson, said Fields believes the decision on whether the Bible should be incorporated into classroom instruction is one best left up to individual districts and that spending money on Bibles is not the best use of taxpayer resources.

Walters in March had announced plans to team up with country music singer Lee Greenwood seeking donations to get Bibles into classrooms after a legislative panel rejected his $3 million request to fund the effort.

Walters, a far-right Republican, made fighting “woke ideology”, banning certain books from school libraries and getting rid of “radical leftists” who he claims were indoctrinating children in classrooms a focal point of his administration. Since his election in 2020, he imposed a number of mandates on public schools and worked to develop new social studies standards for K-12 public school students that included teaching about conspiracy theories related to the 2020 presidential election. Those standards have been put on hold while a lawsuit challenging them moves forward.

Thompson said the agency plans to review all of Walters’ edicts, including a requirement that applicants from teacher jobs coming from California and New York take an ideology exam, to determine if those may also be rescinded.

“We need to review all of those mandates and provide clarity to schools moving forward,” she said.

By CHAN HO-HIM

HONG KONG (AP) — China’s biggest state-owned air carriers have hit back at a U.S. proposal to bar them from flying over Russia when traveling to or from the U.S.

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The U.S. side has said such flights give Chinese airlines an unfair cost advantage over American carriers, which cannot cross through Russian airspace. Moscow closed Russian airspace to U.S. air carriers and most European airlines in 2022 in response to Western sanctions for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Air China, China Eastern and China Southern are among six Chinese airlines filing complaints over the order proposed last week to prohibit such flights by Chinese carriers.

China Eastern said in its filing this week to the U.S. Department of Transport that the proposed ban would “harm the public interest” and “inconvenience travelers” from both China and the U.S. The additional flight time would result in higher costs and elevated air fares, which increases the burden on all travelers, it said.

China Southern warned that a Russian airspace ban would adversely affect thousands of travelers. Air China said it estimates at least 4,400 passengers would be affected if the ban takes effect during the Thanksgiving and Christmas season.

Last week, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun also hit back at the proposed ban, saying the move would be “punishing” passengers around the world.

David Yu, an aviation industry expert at New York University Shanghai, said that U.S. carriers’ inability to fly over Russian airspace has increased flight paths for some U.S.-China routes by roughly two to three hours. Longer journeys require more fuel and pressure U.S. carriers’ profitability.

“The U.S.-China route historically has been a money-maker for airlines on both sides,” Yu said. “From the Chinese carriers’ perspective, if you can go through Russia, your costs go down.”

Despite that, Chinese carriers have struggled with losses, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The U.S. Department of Transportation said in its proposed order that Chinese carriers’ ability to cross Russian airspace has caused “competitive imbalances” between American and Chinese airlines.

“Being able to use the most efficient route provides a competitive advantage because it usually results in the shortest flight time duration, thereby offering a more appealing option to travelers,” the department said last week.

The U.S. Department of Transportation said it would consider public comments before finalizing the plan.

European airlines including Air France-KLM have also complained.

In a filing to the Department of Transportation, United Airlines urged that Hong Kong’s flagship carrier Cathay Pacific, which is not included in the list of Chinese airlines, also be subject to the ban.