Today is Sunday, Dec. 7, the 341st day of 2025. There are 24 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Dec. 7,1972, America’s last crewed moon mission to date was launched as Apollo 17 blasted off from Cape Canaveral.

Also on this date:

In 1787, Delaware became the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

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In 1941, the Empire of Japan launched an air raid on the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, killing more than 2,300 Americans. The United States declared war against Japan the following day.

In 1982, convicted murderer Charlie Brooks Jr. became the first U.S. prisoner to be executed by lethal injection, at a prison in Huntsville, Texas.

In 1988, a major earthquake in the Soviet Union devastated northern Armenia, killing at least 25,000 people.

In 1993, six people were killed and 19 wounded in a mass shooting aboard a Long Island Rail Road train in New York.

In 2004, Hamid Karzai (HAH’-mihd KAHR’-zeye) was sworn in as Afghanistan’s first popularly elected president.

In 2018, James Alex Fields Jr., who drove his car into a crowd of counterdemonstrators at a 2017 white nationalist rally in Virginia, was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Heather Heyer, an anti-racism activist. He was later sentenced on that and other convictions to life in prison plus 419 years.

In 2024, the newly-restored Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris was reopened to the public after a devastating blaze nearly destroyed the beloved Gothic masterpiece in 2019. World leaders attended the reopening ceremony amid great fanfare and celebration.

Today’s Birthdays:

Linguist and political philosopher Noam Chomsky is 97.
Actor Ellen Burstyn is 93.
Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Bench is 78.
Singer-songwriter Tom Waits is 76.
Republican Sen. Susan M. Collins of Maine is 73.
Basketball Hall of Famer Larry Bird is 69.
Actor Jeffrey Wright is 60.
Actor C. Thomas Howell is 59.
Football Hall of Famer Terrell Owens is 52.
Football Hall of Famer Alan Faneca is 49.
Actor Shiri Appleby is 47.
Singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles (bah-REHL’-es) is 46.
Actor Nicholas Hoult is 36.
MLB All-Star Pete Alonso is 31.
Olympic swimming gold medalist Torri Huske is 23.

Jesper Wallstedt is human.

That was the hard lesson Minnesota Wild fans learned late Saturday night, as the red-hot rookie goalie cooled off just a bit, and suffered his first regulation loss of the season.

Victimized for a trio of goals in the second period, Wallstedt and the Wild fell 4-2 in their lone visit to Vancouver this season, dropping their second consecutive game.

Matt Boldy and Mats Zuccarello scored for the Wild, who dominated early but failed to build on their first period lead. Wallstedt, now 8-1-2 as a starter, had 16 saves in the loss.

“The story of this game is we didn’t capitalize on the chances that we had,” Wild coach John Hynes said to reporters at Rogers Arena in Vancouver. “We carried play most of the night. We didn’t get rewarded for the effort we put in offensively, and then we had a couple self-inflicted wounds.”

Aatu Raty had a pair of goals, and another disallowed, for Vancouver, which had been winless in its previous four games.

Just seconds into the game, Wallstedt found himself under pressure, thwarting a Vancouver scoring chance, but upending a Canucks player in the process. Wallstedt was whistled for tripping on the play, which was the second penalty of his NHL career.

The Wild’s penalty killers, who have been on a hot streak lately, negated the Canucks advantage, then Minnesota took the lead shortly after getting back to 5-on-5. Zuccarello – who had served the Wallstedt penalty – grabbed the puck at center ice, kicking off a 2-on-1 rush to the net. His cross-ice pass set up Boldy’s 16th goal of the season.

Zuccarello’s assist on the play was the 242nd he has recorded in a Wild uniform, moving him into fourth place in franchise history, one better than Pierre-Marc Bouchard in the team’s record book. He nearly had another first period assist, with a long lead pass that caught Kirill Kaprizov behind the Vancouver defense, but his breakaway attempt was stopped.

After the Wild spent the first six minutes of the middle frame pushing to double their lead, the Canucks looked, briefly, like they had tied the game. After a lengthy review, officials determined that Raty had kicked the puck into the net and it was no goal.

But Vancouver tied the game for real on a broken play before the second period was half over, via a long-range shot through a crowd in front of Wallstedt. It was the first career goal for Canucks rookie defenseman Tom Willander. A few minutes later, another shot from the blue line fooled Wallstedt, and the Wild found themselves trailing despite all of their early scoring chances. The Canucks also scored on a 2-on-1 rush to make it 3-1, as Vancouver cashed in on three of their first nine shots on goal.

“I thought they just got a couple good bounces. They scored good hockey goals,” said Wallstedt, who had won seven in a row prior to Saturday. “That kind of just switched the momentum we just couldn’t get the puck in today.”

Minnesota made another push to start the third, but instead of cutting into the Canucks’ lead, Wallstedt’s misplayed puck behind the net ended up making it 4-1.

With Wallstedt on the bench and the Wild on a power play, Zuccarello put a wrist shot in to pull Minnesota back within a pair in the final minutes.

Canucks rookie goalie Nikita Tolopilo, making his third start of the season, had 28 saves as Vancouver moved to 1-1 versus Minnesota this season. They will finish their season series with the Wild on April 2 at Grand Casino Arena.

Coupled with Thursday’s 4-1 loss in Calgary, it is only the third time this season that the Wild have had back-to-back losses in regulation, and the first time since Oct. 25.

“We had a good run of winning a lot of games. For us, the message is just getting back to that as quick as possible,” Wild defenseman Zeev Buium said. “Not letting ourselves get down and kind of get out of this.”

The Wild conclude their four-game western road trip on Monday, facing the Kraken for the first time this season, in Seattle. The opening faceoff is scheduled for 9 p.m. CT.

Briefly

After missing the road trip’s first two games with a lower body ailment, rookie center Danila Yurov returned to the lineup and took his place as the middle man on the top line between Kaprizov and Zuccarello. His return meant a healthy scratch for bottom six center Ben Jones.

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With the Timberwolves in a tie game in the final minute and on the verge of another blown late lead in the final frame, Minnesota decided to put together one of its better possessions of Saturday’s bout with the Clippers.

Naz Reid tapped out an offensive rebound to Anthony Edwards, who swung the ball to Mike Conley. Conley drove, kicked back to Edwards, who hit Reid in the corner.

Reid buried the triple. Then he smiled.

Minnesota rallied to beat rallied to beat Los Angeles 109-106 on Saturday at Target Center.

The Wolves need more of that kind of play — and Reid’s smile.

Neither was anywhere to be found in the first three quarters Saturday. The opening 36 minutes brought as much joy as a root canal.

Then came another awe-inspiring start to the final frame.

Over the first 5 minutes, 31 seconds of the fourth quarter, the Timberwolves’ offense:

-scored 23 points

-shot 6 for 7 from the field

-shot 4 for 5 from 3-point range

-assisted on five of its six makes

That beautiful brand of basketball put Minnesota in front, and the Wolves held on down the stretch.

The offense dried up from there, but the small fragment of the contest not only was enough of a buoy but also a reminder of what the Wolves can do when they play basketball with purpose.

That’s when Reid and Jaden McDaniels get rolling. That’s when Minnesota is turning defense into offense. That’s when fun was had on the floor.

It’s the type of basketball that’s repeatable and also enjoyable. And when you like what you’re doing, you’re more likely to keep doing it with energy and effort.

Reid had 19 points and eight rebounds in the win over the Clippers. McDaniels had 27, including 12 in the third quarter when Minnesota needed a spark.

Minnesota shot 44% from distance.

Julius Randle added 24 points on a slow night from Anthony Edwards, who shot 3 for 11 from the field. But Edwards made the right play on the key offensive possession.

James Harden had a look at a tying triple in the closing seconds, but it bounced off the iron. Harden led the Clippers with 34 points and six assists.

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The Gophers women’s volleyball team saw their season come to an end in the NCAA Tournament’s Round of 32 in each of the past two seasons. Julia Hanson personally made sure her senior season didn’t come to the same conclusion on Saturday.

Behind a dominant performance from Hanson, the Gophers punched their ticket to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2022, beating Iowa State in three sets (25-22, 25-21 and 25-14) on Saturday, a night after they swept Fairfield.

“It’s been an amazing four years here just with the crowd and every team that I’ve been apart of, so I’m going to go out strong, no matter what it is,” Hanson said. “I knew this was my last match here (at Maturi Pavilion), so I played hard and my teammates had my back the entire time.”

The Cyclones had no answers for the All-Big Ten outside hitter on Saturday night at Maturi Pavilion as she finished the night with 23 kills.

Hanson led the Gophers with 11 kills in the first set. It was a tight set, but one in which Minnesota never trailed. In the second set, during which the two teams traded leads, Hanson had nine more kills including four on the Gophers’ final five points. And in the third, the team’s most dominant set of the night, she tallied three more to cap off her performance.

“I just trust my teammates to be able to — I’ll go for it in big moments and I think I trust them to just have my back and yeah, I just try to play free,” Hanson said.

In a season full of adversity, Hanson has been a constant for the Gophers.

Minnesota has been starting five freshmen for much of the season alongside Hanson after injuries to four starters. Two of those freshmen, Carly Gilk and Kelly Kinney, added eight kills of their own while redshirt freshman Stella Swenson had 35 assists.

And yet, despite injuries and new lineups, the wins have kept coming for the Gophers.

“When the injuries happened, it was early enough in September that I thought ‘We’ve got time,’” coach Keegan Cook said. “I knew that some of our more experienced players would carry us through a lot of matches while the young players were coming up to speed. So, you saw it kind of happen piece by piece and in the last month, I thought the last couple pieces came online and it felt like a team that was ready to try and do something.”

And now, they’ll try to keep it rolling in the Sweet 16 as the win earned the Gophers — the No. 4 seed in their section of the 64-team bracket — a date with Pittsburgh — No. 1 in the Gophers’ section of bracket — in Pittsburgh.

“I told them I don’t think we played our best match, but we don’t need to anymore, which is great. I thought Stella ran an awesome offense. I thought we fought off some amazing serving,” Cook said. “It took a lot. A three-set sweep I think sometimes doesn’t tell the whole story of just how challenging that was so I’m proud of our guys.”

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