Today is Monday, Oct. 27, the 300th day of 2025. There are 65 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Oct. 27, 2004, the Boston Red Sox won their first World Series since 1918, sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals in four games. The team’s 86-year championship drought was known as the “Curse of the Bambino.”

Also on this date:

In 1787, the first of the Federalist Papers, a series of essays calling for ratification of the United States Constitution, was published.

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In 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a U-2 reconnaissance aircraft was shot down while flying over Cuba, killing the pilot, U.S. Air Force Maj. Rudolf Anderson Jr.

In 1995, a sniper killed one soldier and wounded 18 others during an outdoor physical training session at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. (Paratrooper William J. Kreutzer was convicted in the shootings and condemned to death; the sentence was later commuted to life in prison.)

In 1998, powerful Hurricane Mitch cut through the western Caribbean, pummeling coastal Honduras and Belize; the storm caused several thousand deaths in Central America before eventually making U.S. landfall in southwest Florida as a tropical storm.

In 2018, a gunman shot and killed 11 congregants and wounded six others at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in the deadliest domestic attack on Jews in U.S. history; authorities said the suspect, Robert Bowers, raged against Jews during and after the rampage. (Bowers was convicted and sentenced to death in 2023.)

In 2019, Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi died by detonating a suicide vest as U.S. special forces raided his compound in northwest Syria. He once commanded tens of thousands of fighters who had carved out a territorial caliphate for a time in parts of Syria and Iraq and carried out a wave of atrocities.

In 2023, Israel knocked out communications and created a near-blackout of information with stepped-up bombardment and artillery fire in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military said it was expanding ground operations in the territory ahead of a planned invasion as it sought to crush the ruling Hamas militant group after its Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attack and hostage-taking in southern Israel.

Today’s Birthdays:

Actor-comedian John Cleese is 86.
Author Maxine Hong Kingston is 85.
Country singer Lee Greenwood is 83.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is 80.
Author Fran Lebowitz is 75.
Actor-director Roberto Benigni is 73.
Golf Hall of Famer Patty Sheehan is 69.
Singer Simon Le Bon (Duran Duran) is 67.
Internet news editor Matt Drudge is 59.
Author Anthony Doerr is 52.
Violinist Vanessa-Mae is 47.
TV personality Kelly Osbourne is 41.

The Target Center was juiced in the opening minutes for Minnesota’s home opener Sunday against Indiana.

Full-team player introductions, the return of the ever popular “trees” in Minnesota’s floor and jerseys and a new lights system set the mood for an electric vibe that Minnesota’s play reflected in the opening minutes as the Wolves jumped out to a 19-10 lead.

Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards sits on the bench during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Indiana Pacers, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

But then Anthony Edwards left the game with hamstring tightness and didn’t return. And Minnesota went into a multi-quarter lull.

Minnesota trailed Indiana at the half. Mind you, the Pacers were without Tyrese Haliburton, Andrew Nembhard, TJ McConnell and Benedict Mathurin. And they lost Obi Toppin in the first half to another injury. The Pacers were wiped off the floor a night earlier in Memphis.

And yet they were going punch for punch with the Wolves.

Thankfully for Minnesota, it had Julius Randle.

The team’s usual No. 2 scoring option put on his Batman cape Sunday to save the Wolves from impending disaster. Indiana didn’t have anyone who could hold up to Randle’s physicality, which allowed the forward to get to his spots every time down the floor.

When that’s the case, Randle is nearly impossible to stop.

He had 31 points and six assists to power Minnesota to a 114-110 victory.

“It was a calm place to go,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said of the forward’s hands.

The contest nearly slipped away from Minnesota late, as the Pacers generated one good look after another to stick around and keep the game close.

But Minnesota found enough points when it needed it. A Mike Conley-Rudy Gobert pick and roll ended in a Gobert flush. Jaden McDaniels scored at the rim amid a little chaos.

Gobert finished with 14 points and 18 rebounds, while Naz Reid added 16 points and 10 rebounds off the bench.

The Wolves have much to still figure out. They’ve been largely unimpressive through three games for a team that was expected to hit the ground running.

But Minnesota is still 2-1 through the struggles.

In this era of advanced statistics and probabilities and over-analysis of every nuance on every shift of a hockey game, the only numbers that really matter when the final horn blows are posted on the scoreboard. And those digits once again did not favor the Minnesota Wild on Sunday.

Playing a San Jose Sharks team that came to St. Paul with just one prior win this season, as well as sporting some of the NHL’s worst defensive statistics, the Wild faltered once again — falling behind, rallying, before eventually suffering yet another defeat.

A pair of William Eklund goals and an overtime goal by Macklin Celebrini were difference-makers in San Jose’s 6-5 win. The Wild lost their third game in a row and fell to 1-4-2 in their past seven.

Marcus Johansson, Marco Rossi, Ryan Hartman, Zeev Buium and Joel Eriksson Ek scored for the Wild, who erased an early Sharks lead only to be sunk by San Jose’s timely power play offense.

Jesper Wallstedt, making his third start of the season, had 29 saves in the loss.

Entering Sunday’s game, Minnesota’s penalty kill ranked 30th out of 32 NHL teams, so taking an early penalty was a surefire way to hand the momentum to the visitors. And when Vinnie Hinostroza went to the penalty box for interference, the Sharks attacked.

Posted at the side of the crease, San Jose winger William Eklund banked a puck into the net off Wild defender Jonas Brodin’s skate for an early lead.

The Wild pressured, but did not score, on their first power play before the Sharks doubled their lead. Wallstedt thwarted a rush to the net, only to have the puck squirt through a crowd to rookie Michael Misa, who popped it past the goalie’s outstretched skate. It was the first career goal for Misa, who was picked second overall in the 2025 NHL Draft.

On the Wild’s second power play, after Hinostroza took a high stick to the face, Matt Boldy clanked a shot off the right goalpost. But before Sharks defenseman Vincent Iorio had left the penalty box, Rossi zipped a long-range pass to the net that Johansson redirected in to get Minnesota on the board. It was Johansson’s third goal in the past two games.

On the next shift, Kirill Kaprizov stole the puck from Sharks defenseman Vincent Desharnais at the blue line to kick-start a 2-on-1 rush. Kaprizov passed to Rossi, who blasted a puck past San Jose goalie Yaroslav Askarov to tie the game. The two goals came just 32 seconds apart.

A golden opportunity to take the lead slipped away early in the middle frame when Yakov Trenin had a yawning net in front of him, only to have the puck slip off his blade before he could launch a shot. Instead, the Sharks got goals from Eklund and Ryan Reaves on back-to-back shifts, 18 seconds apart, to again establish a two-goal advantage near the midway point of the game.

Minnesota went back to the power play in the third when Hartman was slashed in the hand by Misa. Back on the ice a minute later, Hartman took a pass from Kaprizov and got off a low shot that eluded Askarov to pull the Wild back within a goal. It was Hartman’s first goal since he had scored twice in the season opener at St. Louis on Oct. 9.

But Tyler Toffoli scored the Sharks’ second power play goal of the game a short time later to re-establish a two-goal lead for the visitors. Rookie defenseman Buium once again got the Wild, and the crowd, back in the game when his long-range shot from the blue line deflected off the shoulder of San Jose center Ty Dellandrea and looped past Askarov for his second career goal.

With just under five minutes to play and Hartman heading into the offensive zone, Sharks defenseman Dmitry Orlov collided with Hartman knee-on-knee, dropping him to the ice. While Hartman was helped to the locker room in obvious pain, officials reviewed the play for a possible major penalty. After review, they said there was no penalty on the play.

Hartman returned to the game two shifts later, and with Wallstedt headed to the bench for an extra attacker, Eriksson Ek tipped a Kaprizov shot past Askarov to tie the game with 2:18 left in regulation. It was a 5-on-5 goal, as Wallstedt had not quite reached the bench when the puck went in. Kaprizov had three assists in the game — the third of which was his 400th career point.

Askarov finished with 28 saves for the Sharks, who will host the Wild on New Years’ Eve in San Jose.

The Wild’s six-game homestand reaches the halfway point on Tuesday when they host the Winnipeg Jets at 7 p.m. It will be Winnipeg’s first visit to Grand Casino Arena this season.

Briefly

Injured Wild defenseman Zach Bogosian visited the press box between the first and second periods on Sunday wearing a walking boot. He has missed the last five games after suffering a lower body injury during an Oct. 17 loss at Washington. While not offering a timeline for his return following surgery, Wild coach John Hynes has indicated that he does not expect Bogosian’s absence will be long-term.

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The Scandia City Council is moving forward with plans for an extension of the Gateway Trail in the city despite some opposition.

The council voted 3-1 last week to go out for bids for a trailhead on city-owned land near Meister’s Bar & Grill along with a tunnel under Oakhill Road (Washington County Road 52) and a one-mile trail connecting the two. Council member Jerry Cusick voted against the measure; Kirsten Libby was not in attendance.

Bids are due on Nov. 19, and the Scandia City Council will decide Dec. 16 whether to accept and award the bid for the project, said City Administrator Kyle Morell.

The estimated cost: $4.6 million. Construction could start in May and should be complete by the end of 2026, he said.

The tunnel under Oakhill, which has an estimated price tag of $1.5 million, has been controversial. Officials from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, the agency that will own, operate and maintain the trail, say it is a necessary safety measure.

Opponents say the tunnel is poorly planned and unnecessary.

The Gateway Trail is one of the state’s most heavily used trails, attracting an estimated 314,000 users in 2024. It currently runs 19 miles from St. Paul to Pine Point Park in Stillwater Township. Plans call for a four-mile extension of the Gateway Trail from William O’Brien State Park to downtown Scandia.

The council will hold a public listening session in early December to give residents opportunity to be heard, but the council won’t take any action at that time, Morell said. Bids will be presented to council at either the public listening meeting or at the Dec. 16 council meeting, Morell said.

The final vote on whether to accept and award the bid for the Gateway Trail Project will be at the Dec. 16 council meeting, he said.

Funding deadline

Scandia Mayor Steve Kronmiller (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

The city got a $2.68 million grant from the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources to extend the trail from the trailhead behind Meister’s Bar & Grill to Oakhill Road. The money also will cover a realignment of 2,000 feet of Oakhill Road and the raising of the road by 6 feet to accommodate the tunnel.

Funding for the trail extension must be expended by June 30, 2027, said Mayor Steve Kronmiller. Terms and conditions of the grant appropriation specifically mention the tunnel.

“We do understand that if we were to vote to reconsider an alternate location or something of that sort, there is a distinct possibility that we wouldn’t be able to meet that deadline and therefore we would lose the funding, so that’s a concern of staff,” Kronmiller said.

If the city had to go back and re-request funds in a different way, it would have to pay a 25 percent matching contribution, he said. “That (matching contribution) doesn’t exist in the grant that we have now,” he said. “It’s 100 percent funded.”

County contribution

Washington County is contributing $800,000 for work related to the tunnel and the realignment of Oakhill; county officials will not allow the trail to cross Oakhill, a county highway, at grade, County Engineer Wayne Sandberg said. To support a grade separation, county officials agreed to contribute financially toward a tunnel option, he said.

“At the end of the day, the council has to make a decision one way or the other, and not everybody is going to be happy with that final decision,” Kronmiller said. “But I hope people understand we are putting in a lot of hard work to understand all of the issues and make the best decision for the community that we can.”

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In the meantime, officials also are working on a plan to finish the connection between downtown Scandia and William O’Brien State Park, Kronmiller said. Design and specifications for that portion of the trail should be completed sometime next summer, he said.

“We still have to acquire the funding, but I definitely see the connection all the way from William O’Brien to downtown Scandia happening,” Kronmiller said. “And when that happens, I expect to see a lot of visitors coming into the town and improving Scandia as a destination for tourism.”