The Gophers will take their 6-1 victory over the Minnesota State Mavericks, warts and all, as they stretched their winning streak to four games in the opener of their best-of-three WCHA quarterfinal playoff series Friday night at Ridder Arena.

There were far too many giveaways in their end for coach Brad Frost’s liking, but the fourth-ranked Gophers (26-9-1) used their superior skill to pull away from the Mavericks (13-20-2).

Aside from the win, the highlight of the night for the Gophers was the continued stellar play of sophomore center Emma Kreisz, who led the way with two goals and three assists. Kreisz has nine goals this season, with four of them coming in the last five games.

“I think really it’s just consistency,” Kreisz said. “And it’s not just showing up for games it’s also showing up for practices. I had a tough year with my team back home — Team Hungary — and that took a little focus away.

“But that’s over, and I’m all in. I’m focused on the here and now.”

The 5-foot-9 Kreisz, a native of Budapest, Hungary, was away for the team at the start of the new year to be with her national team trying to qualify for the Olympics. While Hungary’s attempt came up short, Kreisz was happy with the way she played, and has seen it carry over.

“It’s about getting feedback from the coaches and getting better at those areas I need to focus on,” Kreisz said. “Like using my size and taking pucks to the net, because I’m big girl, so I’ve got to use my size.”

Kreisz said she feels she is playing her best hockey right now, but added, “I think there’s more.”
Kreisz’s line — with Peyton Hemp and Ava Lindsay on the wings — scored five of the Gophers’ six goals, with Lindsay also netting a pair.

Frost has juggled his second and third lines a bit this season, but seems to have hit on something with Kreisz centering the second line and Natalie Mlynkova centering the third line between Emma Connor and Audrey Wethington.

“Last year we played a ton together,” Kreisz said. “When I came back after being gone for a few weeks I was back with them and we clicked right away. I love playing with them. We enjoy each other off the ice, too. There’s good chemistry.”

The Gophers scored the only goal of the first period, with Ava Lindsay picking up her fifth of the season at 9:08. The Gophers outshot the Mavericks 17-5 in the period.

Kreisz’s first goal of the game gave the Gophers a 2-0 lead at 1:40 of the second period. The Gophers thought they had taken a 3-0 lead at 3:25, but following a challenge by Minnesota skate the play was determined that the play was offside.

The Gophers went on their first power play of the game at 16:36 and needed just over a minute to cash in, with Kreisz redirecting a shot by Abbey Murphy past Mavericks goaltender Hailey Hansen.

The Mavericks got back in the game with a goal 14 seconds into the third period. Gophers goaltender Hannah Clark made a save on a clear breakaway at 6:43 of the period, and it proved to be a pivotal moment. The Gophers scored three times in the final five minutes.

“I’m happy with the win but not necessarily with how we played for the 60 minutes,” Frost said.
“Hannah Clark was really good tonight and gave us a chance. We pulled away at the end, so it looks like it wasn’t as close as it actually was.”

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Frost’s message to the team after the game was that it will need to play much better defensively if the Gophers are to make a deep run in the postseason.

The Gophers, who won all four games against the Mavericks during the regular season, will advance to the WCHA Final Faceoff with a win over the Mavericks on Saturday.

“The odd-man rushes are in our focus,” Kreisz said. “We didn’t do a really good job. I think that’s for us to correct tomorrow. If we limit those opportunities we’re going to be just fine.”

Prominent East Metro powers will be well represented in Saturday’s individual state semifinals in St. Paul.

Stillwater, Simley and Mounds View all advanced four wrestlers apiece to the third round of the winner’s bracket.

For Stillwater in Class 3A, senior Lindson Turner is one of the last four standing at 172 pounds, while the Ponies youth talent shined in the first two rounds Friday, as sophomore Noah Nicholson (121 pounds), freshman Grayson Eggum (139) – the son of Gophers coach Brandon Eggum – and freshman Isaac Leonard (145) each won both of their matches Friday.

Also in Class 3A, Mounds View has senior Brett Swenson – who won last year’s state crown at 114 pounds – in the 133-pound semifinals. The Mustangs still have a 114-pound semifinalist in junior Owen LaRose.

Mounds View seniors Colton Loween (160) and Ethan Swenson (215) are also two wins away from state titles.

Simley has a plethora of young talent filling the lower-weight semis, with eighth grader Adrian Mincey at 107 pounds, sophomore Jacob Kranz at 114 pounds and sophomore Jake Kos at 133 pounds. Spartans junior Amlilio Salas is still alive at 152 pounds.

Stillwater finished third in the Class 3A team tournament on Thursday, while Simley was fourth in Class 2A. Mounds View was the fourth-ranked team in Class 3A at season’s end, but fell in the section final to the Ponies.

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Other East Metro Class 3A semifinalists include: Eagan senior Dylan St. Germain (114 pounds), Rosemount junior Abram Anderson (127), Hastings junior Trey Beissel (133), Farmington junior Davis Parrow (145), Woodbury senior Brad Little (152), Irondale senior Clayton Solberg (152), Lakeville South senior Bo Bokman (172), Lakeville North sophomore Tyler Ruff (189), Eagan senior Cole Will (285) and Eastview senior Jack Bauer (285).

Mahtomedi senior Evan McGuire (215) is still alive in Class 2A.

Semifinals are set for Saturday morning, with finals taking place at approximately 6:30 p.m. at Xcel Energy Center.

The entire girls competition will take place Saturday in St. Paul, with quarterfinals and semifinals in the morning/early afternoon session, and finals beginning around 6:30 p.m.

By STEVE KARNOWSKI

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minneapolis man who allegedly expressed admiration for the truck attack in New Orleans that killed 14 people has been accused of trying to join the Islamic State group, federal prosecutors announced Friday.

Abdisatar Ahmed Hassan, 22, made his first court appearance on a charge of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. He was ordered held without bail until a detention hearing March 5.

The chief federal defender for Minnesota, Katherian Roe, said her office will represent him but declined to comment on the case.

The criminal complaint against Hassan, a naturalized U.S. citizen, alleges that he tried twice in December to travel from Minnesota to Somalia to join the group but did not succeed. It says he claimed he was going to visit family but had none there.

Prosecutors said the FBI’s investigation established that Hassan expressed public support for the group in multiple posts on social media and also praised Shamsud-Din Jabbar on TikTok over the New Orleans attack.

Investigators say Jabbar, a 42-year-old Texas native and U.S. Army veteran, posted videos professing allegiance to the Islamic State group and an intent to harm others before he plowed a pickup through a crowd of New Year’s revelers on Bourbon Street on Jan. 1. Police fatally shot him during an exchange of gunfire at the scene.

Hassan also allegedly posted a video last week, of himself driving while holding an Islamic State group flag inside his vehicle. The FBI said it also observed him driving with the flag Wednesday. He was arrested on Thursday.

The charging documents also say police in New York notified the FBI last May that Hassan had made social media posts in support of the Somali group al-Shabab. An affidavit from an agent says investigators spotted al-Shabab and Islamic State group propaganda videos on his TikTok and Facebook accounts. It also alleges that he exchanged messages with a Facebook account that encourages Somali-speaking individuals to travel and fight on behalf of the Islamic State group.

FBI agents were watching when Hassan went to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Dec. 13, authorities say. He allegedly tried to check in for a flight to Somalia but left after an airline employee told him he lacked required travel documents.

He allegedly tried again Dec. 29. Agents saw him board a flight to Chicago, where Customs and Border Protection officers interviewed him extensively before his scheduled flight to Ethiopia but did not detain him. He missed the flight and returned to Minneapolis, the affidavit says.

Hassan is the latest of several Minnesotans suspected of leaving or trying to leave the U.S. to join the Islamic State group in recent years, along with thousands of fighters from other countries. In 2016 nine Minnesota men were sentenced on federal charges of conspiring to join the group, and a Minnesotan who actually fought for the group in Iraq was sentenced last June to 10 years in prison.

By JESSE BEDAYN, Associated Press

President Donald Trump’s administration has begun terminating grants to organizations that enforce the Fair Housing Act by taking complaints, investigating and litigating housing discrimination cases for Americans across the country, according to a document and information obtained by The Associated Press on Friday.

The grants are disbursed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to private nonprofits, which act as the frontline enforcement of the federal anti-discrimination law. They educate communities on their rights, test whether a landlord is racially discriminating, investigate complaints, resolve disputes and can fund legal counsel.

Of some 34,000 fair housing complaints lodged in the U.S. in 2023, these private nonprofits processed 75%, according to a report from the National Fair Housing Alliance. The rest were fielded by state and local governments, with HUD and the U.S. Department of Justice working on less than 6% combined.

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It’s the highest number of complaints since the first report in the 1990s, and over half were lodged for discrimination based on a disability.

Of the 162 active grants going to the private nonprofits to do that work, nearly half are slated for cancellation, said Nikitra Bailey, executive vice president at the National Fair Housing Alliance. Bailey added that some organizations rely entirely on the grants and may have to shutter, others will have to lay off staff.

“It’s doing it at a time when Americans want to see an end to the barrage of rising housing costs and a lack of housing supply,” said Bailey. “They need increased support and intervention from our federal government, not a withdrawal from basic civil rights.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for HUD said: “The Department is responsible for ensuring our grantees and contractors are in compliance with the President’s Executive Orders. If we determine they are not in compliance, then we are required to take action. The Department will continue to serve the American people, including those are facing housing discrimination or eviction.”

In a termination letter, a copy of which was obtained by the AP, HUD said that the cancellations were at the direction of Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency, called DOGE, run partly by billionaire Elon Musk.

The grants intended for fair housing enforcement are largely worth $425,000, an amount which is typically issued annually to organizations.

The letters caused widespread confusion across the country late Thursday night, as fair housing organizations started communicating through listservs, assessing the potential impacts and trying to find answers.

One of the organizations slated to lose funding, Fair Housing Center of Metropolitan Detroit, fields about 200 to 300 fair housing complaints a year and works broadly to resolve housing related problems, such as disputes with landlords, with a coverage area of some 4 million people.

“It’s a significant threat to the viability of our organization at a minimum,” said Steve Tomkowiak, the group’s executive director. “It can threaten the survival of any of the fair housing enforcement organizations.”

For Kimberly Merchant, CEO of Mississippi Center for Justice, the kneecapping of fair housing groups, or their disappearance altogether, would be “open season to discriminate indiscriminately without having to worry about being checked.”

Bedayn is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.