Today is Monday, April 21, the 111th day of 2025. There are 254 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On April 21, 2016, Prince, one of the most inventive and influential musicians of modern times, was found dead at his home in suburban Minneapolis from an accidental fentanyl overdose; he was 57.

Also on this date:

In 1836, an army of Texans, led by Sam Houston, defeated the Mexican Army, led by Antonio López de Santa Anna, in the Battle of San Jacinto, the final battle of the Texas Revolution.

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Today in History: April 18, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake

In 1910, author Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, died in Redding, Connecticut, at age 74.

In 1918, German Air Force pilot Manfred von Richthofen, nicknamed “The Red Baron,” was killed at age 25 after being shot during a World War I air battle over Vaux-sur-Somme, France.

In 1930, fire broke out inside the overcrowded Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus, killing 322 inmates in the deadliest prison disaster in U.S. history.

In 1975, with Communist forces closing in, South Vietnamese President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu resigned after nearly 10 years in office, fleeing the country five days later.

In 1980, Rosie Ruiz was the first woman to cross the finish line at the Boston Marathon, but was later exposed as having cheated by entering the racecourse less than 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) before the finish line. (Canadian Jacqueline Gareau was named the actual winner of the women’s race.)

In 2015, an Egyptian criminal court sentenced ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi to 20 years in prison over the killing of protesters in 2012. (Morsi collapsed and died during trial on espionage charges in June 2019.)

Today’s Birthdays:

Actor-comedian-filmmaker Elaine May is 93.
Author-activist Sister Helen Prejean is 86.
Singer Iggy Pop is 78.
Actor Patti LuPone is 76.
Actor Tony Danza is 74.
Actor Andie MacDowell is 67.
Musician Robert Smith (The Cure) is 66.
Actor Rob Riggle is 55.
Actor James McAvoy is 46.
Former NFL quarterback Tony Romo is 45.
Actor Gugu Mbatha-Raw is 42.

LAS VEGAS — Everything is new in the playoffs, but for the Minnesota Wild at least one bothersome trend from the regular season made an appearance in game No. 83.

As they did three times between December and March, the Wild played a tough game with the Vegas Golden Knights, pushing back when provoked and sometimes having an answer for the home team’s offense.

And in their NHL playoff opener, it wasn’t enough — just like in the regular season.

The Knights scored in every period on Sunday and never trailed, thwarting a two-goal evening by Minnesota forward Matt Boldy in a 4-2 win to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. Game 2 is a 10 p.m. CT start on Tuesday at T-Mobile Arena.

The Wild got 23 saves from Filip Gustavsson but lost their opening road game of the playoffs for the first time this decade. Boldy, who led the Wild in goals, assists and points in the regular season, carried his offense over into the postseason, but a two-goal lead by Vegas in the third period was too much to overcome.

“What we expected. I think both teams came to play hard and pretty good, strong defensive efforts. Not a lot of special teams in the game,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “I thought we did a lot of good things to build on and move forward here.”

Vegas Golden Knights left wing Pavel Dorofeyev (16) celebrates with defenseman Shea Theodore (27) and center Tomas Hertl (48) after Dorofeyev’s goal during the second period in Game 1 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup first-round playoff series against the Minnesota Wild, Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ian Maule)

Golden Knights goalie Adin Hill had 19 saves in the win. Brett Howden scored a pair of goals for the Knights, who won the Pacific Division in the regular season.

The physical tone that fans have come to expect from playoff hockey was evident from the opening faceoff, underscored roughly 5 minutes into the opening period when Wild center Ryan Hartman was leveled near the defensive blue line by an open-ice blindside hit by Knights winger Ivan Barbashev. Hartman was slow getting off the ice but returned for a shift a few minutes later.

Vegas got the first goal on a hard-working individual play by Tomas Hertl. The Knights center used his stick to thwart a clearing attempt by Wild defenseman Brock Faber at the side of the net, then grabbed the loose puck and fired it into a tiny gap over Gustavsson’s right shoulder to give the home team the early lead.

But Minnesota had a quick answer when Kirill Kaprizov fed Boldy with a cross-ice pass, which Boldy converted with a low shot that beat Hill on the glove side to make it 1-1.

Near the midway point of the game, Knights winger Brandon Saad got behind the Wild defense and had a breakaway from the blue line but his the crossbar. Minnesota did not escape the period unscathed, however, as a high sticking penalty on Joel Eriksson Ek gave Vegas the game’s first power play, and they needed just 5 seconds of man advantage to take the lead back.

Minnesota’s top line made a strong push late in the middle frame but the Wild headed to the second intermission down a goal.

Vegas opened things up early in the third when a promising offensive zone possession by the Wild went sour quickly and the Knights opened up a 3-1 lead. Streaking down the wing, Howden exploited that same tiny gap above Gustavsson’s shoulder.

Special teams were a theme for Vegas in the regular season, during which they set a franchise record by scoring more than 28 percent of the time on their power play. They also set a NHL record for fewest penalties in a season, being whistled just 197 times in 82 games. That last stat may become a theme as this series rolls on, as Hartman took not only the hit which could have been called interference, but also a cross check to the face in the third period that also went unpunished.

Hartman said afterward that if the series is about five-on-five hockey with few penalties called, that suits Minnesota well.

“That’s fine with us. It’s playoff hockey. We’re pretty happy with our team five-on-five, so that’s fine with us,” he said. “We both had a power play. It’s pretty even.”

Hartman declined to opine on the two hits that went unpenalized.

Matt Boldy #12 of the Minnesota Wild celebrates his goal with Zeev Buium #8 and Kirill Kaprizov #97 in the first period against the Vegas Golden Knights in Game One of the First Round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs at T-Mobile Arena on April 20, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Candice Ward/Getty Images)

Vegas defenseman Brayden McNabb was called for boarding Hartman later in the third period, but Minnesota failed to convert on its only power play chance.

Down by two, the Wild refused to go quietly, and pulled back within a goal when Boldy corralled a deflected shot by Kaprizov and deposited a backhanded wraparound shot to make it 3-2 with just more than 8 minutes remaining.

Hynes pulled Gustavsson with less than 90 seconds left, but Boldy was whistled for tripping with William Karlsson headed for the empty net.

“They’re a good team. They don’t give up much. Same with us, so you expect that going in,” Boldy said of the tight-checking nature of Vegas in the playoffs. “I thought we played a good game, had our chances. That’s the way it goes.”

Howden was credited with an empty net goal in the final second for the two-goal margin.

“Good for Howie. He’s had a good year and has been there for us all season,” Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said in the postgame press conference.

Boldy said there was some optimism to be had from the push made by the Wild in the third, and the fact that they didn’t fold despite being down by two goals.

“You’ve got to win four games. It doesn’t matter when or how,” he said. “Just stay positive, keep going. Take the good and work on the bad, I guess.”

After taking his rookie lap at the start of warmups, with several family members watching from the front row, defenseman Zeev Buium became the first player in Wild franchise history to make his NHL debut in the playoffs. Paired with veteran Zach Bogosian, he logged more than 13 minutes and showed flashes of the puck-moving skill that made him the top offensive defenseman in college hockey last season with Denver.

“After my first shift the nerves completely went away,” said Buium, who had one shot on goal in the game. “Less nerves than I thought there was going to be. After my first shift it was just like, ‘You’re playing hockey now.’ ”

Buium, who turned 19 in December, became the 12th-youngest player in league history to make his NHL debut in the playoffs.

There was an unplanned timeout early in the second period when linesman Bryan Panich had to be helped from the ice after an inadvertent collision with a Golden Knights player near the blue line. He was replaced by standby official Frederick L’Ecuyer.

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LAS VEGAS — Matt Boldy scored twice for Minnesota, but so did Vegas’ Brett Howden and the Golden Knights opened their first-round Western Conference playoffs series with a 4-2 victory Sunday night over the Minnesota Wild.

Tomas Hertl had a goal and an assist for the Golden Knights, Pavel Dorofeyev also scored, and Adin Hill made 18 saves.

Matt Boldy scored both Wild goals, the second bring Minnesota within 3-2 late in the the third period. The Wild pulled goaltender Filip Gustavsson for an extra attacker, and Howden scored an empty-netter with 1 second left.

Kirill Kaprizov assisted on both of Boldy’s goals, and Gustavsson stopped 23 shots.

Game 2 is Tuesday night in Las Vegas.

Both teams traded goals in the first period. Hertl took the puck from Minnesota’s Brock Faber and hit the net from just inside the front side of the left circle. The Wild answered 2:20 later when Kaprizov delivered a cross-ice pass to Boldy, who scored off the rush.

Dorofeyev scored the only goal in the second period when Hertl won the faceoff to open a power play. The puck went to Shea Theodore, who skated to the center and set up Dorofeyev for a blast from the right circle. Dorofeyev has scored goals in three consecutive games going back to the end of the regular season.

Howden extended the Vegas lead to 3-1 early in the third period, but Boldy’s wrap-around goal with 8:14 left brought Minnesota to within one.

Wild 19-year-old defenseman Zeev Buium made his NHL debut by playing on the third pair with Zach Bogosian. He played 13:37 with a shot on goal. Buium was playing for Denver just 10 days earlier in the NCAA’s Frozen Four.

Linesman Bryan Pancich left the game 3:37 into the second period after a collision with Howden. Backup official Frederick L’Ecuyer took Pancich’s place.

By JESSE BEDAYN

Moments after Daniris Espinal walked into her new apartment in Brooklyn, she prayed. In ensuing nights, she would awaken and touch the walls for reassurance — finding in them a relief that turned to tears over her morning coffee.

Those walls were possible through a federal program that pays rent for some 60,000 families and individuals fleeing homelessness or domestic violence. Espinal was fleeing both.

But the program, Emergency Housing Vouchers, is running out of money — and quickly.

Funding is expected to be used up by the end of next year, according to a letter from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and obtained by The Associated Press. That would leave tens of thousands across the country scrambling to pay their rent.

It would be among the largest one-time losses of rental assistance in the U.S., analysts say, and the ensuing evictions could churn these people — after several years of rebuilding their lives — back onto the street or back into abusive relationships.

“To have it stop would completely upend all the progress that they’ve made,” said Sonya Acosta, policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which researches housing assistance.

“And then you multiply that by 59,000 households,” she said.

The program, launched in 2021 by then-President Joe Biden as part of the pandemic-era American Rescue Plan Act, was allocated $5 billion to help pull people out of homelessness, domestic violence and human trafficking.

People from San Francisco to Dallas to Tallahassee, Florida, were enrolled — among them children, seniors and veterans — with the expectation that funding would last until the end of the decade.

But with the ballooning cost of rent, that $5 billion will end far faster.

Last month, HUD sent letters to groups dispersing the money, advising them to “manage your EHV program with the expectation that no additional funding from HUD will be forthcoming.”

The program’s future rests with Congress, which could decide to add money as it crafts the federal budget. But it’s a relatively expensive prospect at a time when Republicans, who control Congress, are dead set on cutting federal spending to afford tax cuts.

Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters, who championed the program four years ago, is pushing for another $8 billion infusion.

But the organizations lobbying Republican and Democratic lawmakers to reup the funding told the AP they aren’t optimistic. Four GOP lawmakers who oversee the budget negotiations did not respond to AP requests for comment.

“We’ve been told it’s very much going to be an uphill fight,” said Kim Johnson, the public policy manager at the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

Espinal and her two daughters, aged 4 and 19, are living on one of those vouchers in a three-bedroom apartment with an over $3,000 monthly rent — an amount extremely difficult to cover without the voucher.

Four years ago, Espinal fought her way out of a marriage where her husband controlled her decisions, from seeing her family and friends to leaving the apartment to go shopping.

When she spoke up, her husband said she was wrong, or in the wrong or crazy.

Isolated and in the haze of postpartum depression, she didn’t know what to believe. “Every day, little by little, I started to feel not like myself,” she said. “It felt like my mind wasn’t mine.”

When notices arrived in March 2021 seeking about $12,000 in back rent, it was a shock. Espinal had quit her job at her husband’s urging and he had promised to cover family expenses.

Police reports documenting her husband’s bursts of anger were enough for a judge to give her custody of their daughter in 2022, Espinal said.

But her future was precarious: She was alone, owed thousands of dollars in back rent and had no income to pay it or support her newborn and teenage daughters.

Financial aid to prevent evictions during the pandemic kept Espinal afloat, paying her back rent and keeping the family out of shelters. But it had an expiration date.

Around that time, the Emergency Housing Vouchers program was rolled out, targeting people in Espinal’s situation.

A “leading cause of family homelessness is domestic violence” in New York City, said Gina Cappuccitti, director of housing access and stability services at New Destiny Housing, a nonprofit that has connected 700 domestic violence survivors to the voucher program.

Espinal was one of those 700, and moved into her Brooklyn apartment in 2023.

The relief went beyond finding a secure place to live, she said. “I gained my worth, my sense of peace, and I was able to rebuild my identity.”

Now, she said, she’s putting aside money in case of the worst. Because, “that’s my fear, losing control of everything that I’ve worked so hard for.”