MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Anthony Edwards returned to Minnesota with his All-Star Game MVP award and scored 40 points to help the Timberwolves hold off Dallas 122-111 on Friday, the 10th straight loss for the Mavericks.

Rudy Gobert #27 of the Minnesota Timberwolves dunks the ball against the Dallas Mavericks in the first quarter at Target Center on February 20, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by David Berding/Getty Images)

Rudy Gobert had 22 points, 17 rebounds and three blocks and Naz Reid added 21 points for the Timberwolves, who squandered a 17-point first-half lead before Edwards took over down the stretch.

Tyus Jones tied the game at 103 on a floater with 6:55 left, capping a 12-2 spurt for the Mavericks and ending a stretch of 36:32 during which the Timberwolves were ahead. But Edwards answered with a step-back 3-pointer and Reid hit one too less than a minute later, and the Mavericks never grabbed the lead.

Edwards, who has eight 40-point games this season, had 14 points in the fourth quarter.

Khris Middleton had 18 points and Marvin Bagley added 15 points and 13 rebounds for the Mavericks, who are on their longest losing streak in 28 years.

The Mavericks last won on Jan. 22 against the Golden State Warriors. They played without star rookie Cooper Flagg for the second straight game, whose sprained foot needed more a little time to heal than the All-Star break afforded him. Max Christie (ankle) was also out for a team that’s also missing Kyrie Irving and Dereck Lively with injuries for the remainder of the season.

The Timberwolves started 8 of 13 from 3-point range, posted a 40-point first quarter and ballooned their lead to 17 points late in the second quarter before a lackadaisical start to the second half. Julius Randle finished with just 13 points on 4-for-15 shooting.

Gobert was given a flagrant foul in the second quarter that will trigger an automatic one-game suspension due to his running season total.

Minnesota hosts Philadelphia at 6 p.m. Sunday in a game televised on FDSN.

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Going scoreless on three power-play opportunities is atypical for the Hill-Murray girls’ hockey team.

After all, the Pioneers entered Friday’s Class 2A state semifinal scoring on 47.83% of their opportunities.

Hill Murray celebrates after defeating Edina 3-2 to win a Class 2A semifinal game of the State Girls Hockey Tournament at Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul on Friday, Feb. 20, 2026. (Craig Lassig / Special to the Pioneer Press)

Given one more chance at 5 on 4 late in the third period, Hill-Murray did not waste the opportunity.

Emily Pohl scored on a rebound with 3:13 remaining and the Pioneers beat Edina 3-2. The initial shot from Jaycee Chatleain narrowly missed a defender.

“We’ve said all throughout playoffs we don’t really need to change anything. We just need to play our game and be confident in that. Going into that power play, we were just confident in ourselves,” said winger Sophie Olson, one of just two seniors on the roster.

“Their power play is lethal and up until that last goal we read them like a book. We played really, really well. We were blocking shots. We weren’t giving them any real looks,” Edina coach Sami Cowger said.

Seeking its fourth title in nine appearances since 2014, the Pioneers will face Holy Family Catholic or Centennial/Spring Lake Park in Saturday’s 7 p.m. final back at Grand Casino Arena.

This is the third year that Hill-Murray and Edina met in the state tournament, splitting the past two championship games with Hill-Murray winning 5-4 in double overtime last year and Edina winning 2-0 in 2024. Hill-Murray also beat Edina 4-3 early this season.

“I didn’t expect anything different and that it would come down to that final buzzer. Obviously, just wish it would have gone the other way at the end there,” Cowger said.

With its goalie pulled, Libby Moe hit the post for Edina (21-5-3) and an Audrey Davis shot through traffic was stopped by Piper Tam, who finished with 20 saves.

Lorelai Nelson tied the game 5:34 into the third period with her fourth goal of the tournament, but the fourth-seeded Hornets could not get one more.

Hill-Murray is now 25-3-1, but only four of those wins were by less than three goals.

“A very gritty win for a group of kids who necessarily that’s maybe not their M.O. But at the end of the year, you have to win in that way, you have to play gritty, you have to play strong. And some very skilled kids found a way to do that,” Pioneers co-coach John Pohl said.

Hannah Rychley converted a feed from Gwynn Skoogman midway through the first period for a 1-0 Hill-Murray lead, but Hazel Schenkelberg answered for Edina with a wrister from the left dot a little over four minutes later.

Olivia Braunshausen scored the lone goal of the second period by driving down the slot to put home a rebound. Taylor Miller was stopped twice at the post and the puck trickled out.

Braunshausen has goals in back-to-back games after scoring twice in the Pioneers’ first 27 games. However, the defender is fifth on the team with 20 assists.

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Lindsey Vonn had another surgery on her badly broken left leg Friday and remained hospitalized nearly two weeks after her terrifying crash in the Olympic downhill.

Vonn flew home to the United States last weekend after a week of treatment for a complex tibia fracture and at least four surgeries at a hospital in Italy.

“Made it through surgery,” Vonn said in her latest post on Instagram. “It took a bit more than 6 hours to complete. As you can see, it required a lot of plates and screws to put back together.

“With the extent of the trauma, I’ve been struggling a bit post op and have not yet been able to be discharged from the hospital just yet,” Vonn added. “Almost there. Baby steps.”

Vonn added on X next to an X-ray showing metal screws and other hardware inside her leg, “I’m bionic for real now.”

Vonn was attempting to win a medal at the Milan Cortina Games at age 41 with a torn ACL in her left knee and a partial titanium replacement in her right knee. But she got hooked on a gate 13 seconds into her run — resulting in a spinning, air-born crash that sent her careening down the mountain in Cortina d’Ampezzo.

Because her skis did not release during the crash, the fall has raised safety issues among the skiing circuit.

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MILAN (AP) — Zach Werenski and his U.S. teammates tried not to look ahead at a potential gold-medal game against Canada at the Olympics. After each went unbeaten in group play, there was no way the North American rivals could meet before the final, but there was work left to do.

After routing Slovakia 6-2 in the semifinals on Friday night, the much-anticipated but never guaranteed U.S.-Canada showdown for gold is on.

“It’s the matchup everyone wanted,” Werenski said after his three-assist performance against Slovakia. “Now that it’s finally here, we can kind of shift our focus to Canada.”

The two top seeds in the tournament, who went in as the favorites, will meet Sunday. It comes a year after the U.S. and Canada played two memorable games against each other at the 4 Nations Face-Off.

“It’s the final that we wanted and the team that we wanted to play,” winger Matt Boldy said. “It’s exciting for the fans and for hockey and everything like that.’’

Jack Hughes #86 of Team United States celebrates after scoring a goal with Matt Boldy #12 and Brady Tkachuk #7 of Team United States in the second period during the Men’s Semifinals Playoff match between the United States and Slovakia on day fourteen of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic games at Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena on Feb. 20, 2026, in Milan, Italy. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images/TNS)

That NHL-run event ended a drought of nearly a decade without an international tournament featuring the best hockey players in the world. Three fights in the first nine seconds in the first meeting put the 4 Nations in the spotlight, and their epic final won by Canada in overtime only built the anticipation for the Olympics.

“Now that it’s all set in stone, everything happens for a reason,” said Brady Tkachuk, who along with brother Matthew and J.T. Miller were involved in the 4 Nations fisticuffs. “We’ll be looking forward to this one. You guys have been talking about it for a while. Now you get to enjoy it.”

After Canada did its part by rallying to beat Finland earlier in the day, the U.S. had no trouble against the Slovaks, who made an improbable run and were simply overmatched. They’ll face the Finns for bronze on Saturday night, looking for just the second hockey medal in the country’s history after getting the first with a third-place finish in Beijing in 2022.

The U.S. is playing for gold after the semifinals were a much easier go than the quarterfinals against Sweden, when overtime was needed to survive a scare. Dylan Larkin, Tage Thompson, Jack Hughes and Jack Eichel scored the four goals on 23 shots that chased Samuel Hlavaj out of Slovakia’s net past the midway point of the second period.

Thompson, one of just a handful of newcomers who did not play at the 4 Nations, exited later in the second after blocking a shot and did not return. Coach Mike Sullivan said Thompson “was held out for precautionary reasons more than anything.”

“We’ll see how he recovers, but I anticipate him being ready for game time,” Sullivan said.

Hughes got his second goal of the game just after a power play expired, and Brady Tkachuk scored on a breakaway with just over nine minutes left to provide some more breathing room.

“That was definitely one of our strongest games, for sure,” said Quinn Hughes, who along with brother Jack have been the best U.S. players in Milan. “For the most part, we played really well. A little bit looser there in the third, but it’s a 5-0 game and you want to get out safe and feel good for the next game.”

Goaltender Connor Hellebuyck did his job as his teammates outshot Slovakia by a substantial margin. Everything he has done at the Olympics has validated Sullivan’s decision to go with Hellebuyck as the U.S. starter over Jake Oettinger and Jeremy Swayman.

The U.S. last reached the final in 2010, when it lost to Canada in overtime on Sidney Crosby’s famous golden goal. Crosby’s status is uncertain this time after getting injured in the quarterfinals Wednesday and not playing Friday against Finland.

The last U.S. men’s hockey gold came in 1980 with the “Miracle on Ice” in Lake Placid.

“It definitely motivates us,” Werenski said. “We’ve talked about. We’re well aware of it. I don’t think it’s pressure. It’s fun. It’s exciting.”

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