Oklahoma City — For the first two rounds of these playoffs — and, really, the six-plus weeks leading up to them — Minnesota had consistently been the bigger, faster, stronger team on the floor.

That was certainly not the case on Tuesday evening in Oklahoma City.

The Thunder were more physical in every respect in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, taking it to Minnesota from the opening quarter en route to a 114-88 victory to take a 1-0 series lead.

Game 2 is at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday back in Oklahoma City.

Minnesota survived on 3-point shooting to keep its nose in front in the first half. The Wolves jumped out to an 8-0 lead and led 48-40 late in the second quarter. But its formula of outside shot making simply was not as reliable as Oklahoma City’s relentless defensive pressure and offensive attacking.

The Thunder imposed their will. They prevented Minnesota from getting much outside of 3-point shots and, on the other end, lived in the paint. Minnesota was unable to contain the ball.

That’s a losing formula.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander struggled from the field in the first half, the presumptive MVP cranked it up in the second half, scoring 20 of his 31 points over the final two frames. His sidekick, Jalen Williams, scored 19 points to go with five steals. Chet Holmgren recovered from a rough first half to serve as an interior offensive force.

Julius Randle was a force for Minnesota offensively. He rained down triples in the first half, and was aggressive getting to the bucket in the fourth to finish with 28 points. but no one joined him. Anthony Edwards was a bystander in the second half, and the Timberwolves’ bench players of Donte DiVincenzo, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Naz played rhythm-less basketball, looking out of sorts throughout the game.

The Timberwolves turned the ball over 19 times, which led to 31 Oklahoma City points.

Minnesota hasn’t looked that ineffective since Game 1 of its last series, in which it got beat by Golden State. That game also came off a lengthy layoff. The Timberwolves recovered from that debacle just fine. But the Warriors also had to play the remainder of that series sans its best player. That won’t be the case in these West Finals.

So Minnesota will need to find real answers. What those are remains to be seen.

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo after congressional Republicans recommended that he be charged with lying over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, a person familiar with the matter said Tuesday.

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The U.S. attorney’s office in Washington launched the investigation shortly after Rep. James Comer, Republican chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, asked the Justice Department to prosecute Cuomo over statements he made to the committee investigating his management of the pandemic when the virus was spreading through nursing homes, the person said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss an ongoing investigation.

A spokesperson for Cuomo said Tuesday that the former governor was never informed of any such investigation. Cuomo is currently running for mayor of New York City.

“So why would someone leak it now? The answer is obvious: This is lawfare and election interference plain and simple — something President Trump and his top Department of Justice officials say they are against,” Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said in an email.

The investigation was first reported Tuesday by The New York Times. The Justice Department declined Tuesday to comment. Spokespeople for the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

To date, the Minnesota Frost have won every playoff round they have been a part of, and have done so without ever winning the opening game of a series.

If history is to repeat itself, the Frost are perfectly positioned, as the Ottawa Charge stayed undefeated at home in the playoffs, getting an overtime goal from Emily Clark to beat Minnesota 2-1 and take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five Walter Cup Final.

After Minnesota dominated the third period and the early stretches of overtime, Clark picked up an ill-advised Frost drop pass in the defensive zone and went coast-to-coast, beating Frost goalie Nicole Hensley by finding a tiny gap between the netminder and the near post.

Klara Hymlarova scored the only goal for the Frost, who outshot Ottawa 26-19 for the game. They got 17 saves from Hensley.

“We started well. We had a little bit of a lull, I felt like, in the first. But then I liked our second and third,” Frost coach Ken Klee said. “We know it’s going to be a tight series. They’re a good team. Goals are going to come at a premium, and obviously they got one more than us tonight.”

Game 2 is Thursday evening in Ottawa.

The scoreless first period was a tale of two nations, as the Frost dominated early and got the game’s first power play but were unable to capitalize with the extra player.

Ottawa went on the power play later when Michaela Cava pulled down her former Minnesota Duluth teammate Gabbie Hughes, and the Charge pelted Hensley with a quartet of shots on the advantage, but were also held off the scoreboard. The period ended with Ottawa holding a 9-4 shots lead.

Again in the second, Minnesota was the early aggressor, with Denisa Krizova’s solo rush to the net ending with a backhand shot sliding just wide of the far post, and Kendall Coyne Schofield getting tripped up on a 2-on-1 rush to the net, drawing the Frost’s second power play.

They tested Gwyneth Phillips several times, but again failed to score on the advantage. Just seconds after Ottawa got back to five-on-five hockey, Rebecca Leslie threaded a shot through a crowd in front of Hensley for the first goal of the Final.

The second period ended with Ottawa up 1-0 and on the power play, although Minnesota had locked things down defensively and allowed the Charge little offense with the extra skater.

“Ottawa is a great team, a fast team, physical and relentless, so we were prepared for that,” Frost defender Lee Stecklein said. “We’ve faced teams like them all season, so nothing crazy. We just have to stick to our game and find a way to get the puck in the net.”

Phillps’ propensity to range far beyond her crease came back to bite Ottawa early in the third, as the Frost pulled even.

Katy Knoll pulled the puck off the wall in the corner while Phillips scrambled to get back into position. Knoll zipped a cross-zone pass to Hymlarova, who caught the puck in her skates, pushed it ahead to her stick and popped a backhand shot into the mostly empty net a half-second before Phillips could get back to the crease.

It was a rare mistake by the Charge, and the first goal of the playoffs for Hymlarova, which swung the momentum to Minnesota’s side.

The Frost dominated the final period of regulation, outshooting Ottawa 10-3 and forcing Phillips into several high-danger saves before the game went to overtime.

“We knew to expect a close game, and of course the first one goes to overtime,” said Stecklein. “(I) like the way we played. Unfortunately it didn’t go our way tonight but we have a day to reset and get ready for Game 2.”

Minnesota won 2024 playoff rounds versus Toronto and Boston after losing the opening game in both series. This season the Frost dispatched Toronto in the PWHL semifinal round after falling in the series opener.

Phillips finished with 25 saves for Ottawa, which improved to 3-0 at home in the playoffs.

Rebecca Leslie #37 scores on Nicole Hensley #29 of the Minnesota Frost in the second period during Game One of the PWHL Finals at The Arena at TD Place on May 20, 2025 in Ottawa, Ontario. (Photo by Troy Parla/Getty Images)
Minnesota Frost forward Michela Cava (86) is stopped by Ottawa Charge goalie Gwyneth Philips (33) during second period PWHL final action, Tuesday May 20, 2025 in Ottawa. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press via AP)

A self-admitted gambling addict was spared prison Tuesday for swindling more than $600,000 from a New Brighton portable storage company while she was employed as its accounting specialist.

Ramsey County District Judge Sophia Vuelo stayed a nearly five-year prison term for Kylie Marie Larson and gave the 32-year-old a downward departure from state sentencing guidelines that includes a year in the workhouse and 10 years of probation. She must serve 60 days in jail before being eligible for electronic home monitoring.

Kylie Marie Larson (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Larson was ordered to pay back the $606,790.42 that she stole from her former employer — Portable Storage of MN, a family-run business that operates under the name Big Blue Box — from late November 2020 to late March 2024.

The charges say Larson used her “position of trust” at the business to employ an “elaborate and sophisticated scheme” for her personal monetary gain.

Through bank records, charges say, New Brighton police investigator Joe Pyka discovered Larson made nearly 230 transactions — a mix of ATM withdrawals and debit-card purchases — at Running Aces, Mystic Lake and Little Six casinos — totaling just shy of $294,000.

She made nearly 1,200 Amazon purchases, spending more than $130,000 on groceries, alcohol, home improvement supplies, clothing, electronics, digital subscriptions, luggage and sex toys, among other items.

In March, after reaching an agreement with the prosecution, Larson pleaded guilty to one count each of theft by swindle and identity theft and faced a presumptive prison term. She agreed to the restitution as part of the plea.

The prosecution, which had agreed to dismiss 10 other charges, asked Vuelo for a five-year prison term, with Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Thomas Madison noting Larson’s past similar convictions in his argument against probation.

In 2021, while working for Big Blue Box, Larson was put on probation in Dakota County for check forgery and theft by swindle for defrauding a previous employer. Although Big Blue Box ran a background check on Larson before she was hired in 2020, the business did not catch the case because she had not yet been charged.

Larson’s attorney, Ryan Garry, told the judge that Larson has been diagnosed with a “severe” gambling disorder and began outpatient treatment and therapy the same month she was charged. She attends therapy weekly and outpatient treatment three times a week, he said.

Vuelo cited a number of factors in making her decision. She said Larson is “particularly motivated to change, if she was not in the past” and that she’s young enough to “still turn her life around and truly be a positive, contributing member of our society.” Larson has “the ability and know-how and the intellect to earn a living,” the judge said, while ordering that 30 percent of her monthly earnings go toward restitution.

Fired from previous job

According to the 17-page criminal complaint, Larson was hired by Portable Storage as an account specialist on Sept. 21, 2020. She passed a background check, but the company did not speak with her former employer as part of the hiring process.

Less than a month earlier, on Aug. 12, Larson was fired from her accountant job with Southview Senior Communities in Lilydale. A review of Southview’s finances showed Larson wrote out eight fraudulent checks between February 2020 — the same month she was hired — and July 17, 2020, totaling just over $24,000.

Once at Big Blue Box, Larson had access to and regularly handled sensitive financial information through the company’s bookkeeping software, online bank accounts, financial statements, credit card and checks. “(A co-worker) indicated that (Larson) was an enthusiastic and well‐liked employee during most of her tenure with Portable Storage,” the complaint says.

But Larson had another secret, starting in February 2022 when she was charged in Ramsey County District Court with obtaining unemployment benefits through false representation. The criminal complaint says she received more than $16,300 in unemployment benefits while working at Portable Storage, spending at least $30,000 at Mystic Lake Casino and over $10,000 at Running Aces.

Larson’s co-worker at Big Blue Box eventually stumbled upon the theft at the New Brighton company in October 2023 while working on company accounts. The worker noticed in QuickBooks software several discrepancies in payments to a vendor — Arrow Towing, out of Nebraska. Larson had no explanation for the discrepancies, despite being given until early February to come up with one.

After her arrest on the charges, Larson said she had a gambling addiction and had been trying to get help for a long time. She cited difficulty with being a single mother and seeing her daughter’s friends go on trips when she could not buy groceries. At the end of the interview, Larson said: “I knew this day was going to come, but I didn’t know when.”

Company had $10K insurance policy

One side of the courtroom gallery was full with employees of Big Blue Box. Andrew Longbella, chief financial officer, read a prepared statement on behalf of the company, which was founded in 2001 by his uncle William Kirkpatrick.

Earlier, prosecutor Madison had noted the company had an insurance policy to cover employee theft in the amount of $10,000.

Outside of the monetary loss, Longbella said, the major impact of the crime was that Kirkpatrick, who served as CEO, “had to deal with the discovery of this theft and the impact to his company in the final months of his life.” At the same time the theft was discovered, he said, Kirkpatrick’s battle with melanoma took a turn for the worse and he died on July 26 at age 57.

“I watched as he painfully spent countless hours with me, helping to navigate decisions and the potential impacts to our company,” he said. “… Precious time that was taken away from him and his family that he would not get back.”

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Longbella said Larson has a successful children’s birthday party business, which she started during her time with Big Blue Box. He said details of her theft and the police investigation report show she used the company’s stolen money to buy products and supplies to fund and operate her business.

“This is a slap in the face to our company to see this business start and grow, aided by her theft from our company,” he said.

When it came time to address the court, Larson shook as she read a prepared statement. She apologized to “the people that I hurt, disappointed, lied and ultimately stole from. I was selfish. … Big Blue Box was a home to me. I was greeted every day with open arms, friendships and leadership. I hurt good people with good hearts.”

Larson said her gambling addiction “fogged my judgment” and led her to make choices “I deeply regret. I want the court to know that I acknowledge the harm I have caused to myself, past employers, family, friends and my daughter. There are no excuses. I plan on making full restitution to the victims.”

Longbella said after the hearing that the company had no comment on Larson’s sentence, adding: “We remain focused on moving forward.”