By JOHN WAWROW, AP Hockey Writer

MILAN (AP) — Megan Keller backhanded in a shot 4:07 into overtime and the United States won its third Olympic gold medal in women’s hockey, beating Canada 2-1 at the Milan Cortina Games on Thursday night to close another thrilling chapter of one of sports’ most heated rivalries.

American captain Hilary Knight, in her fifth and final Olympics, forced overtime by tipping in Laila Edwards’ shot from the blue line with 2:04 remaining. The goal was the 15th of her Olympic career and 33rd point to break the U.S. record in both categories.

With the sides playing 3-on-3, Keller broke up the left wing and pushed past Claire Thompson. Driving to the net, the U.S. assistant captain got off a backhander that beat Ann-Renee Desbiens over her left pad.

Aerin Frankel stopped 30 shots for the U.S.

Kristen O’Neill scored a short-handed goal for Canada and Desbiens finished with 31 saves.

This was the seventh of 12 Olympic meetings between the rivals to be decided by one goal and the third to go past regulation. Canada overcame a late 2-1 deficit to beat the U.S. 3-2 on Marie-Philip Poulin’s overtime goal at the 2014 Sochi Games. The U.S. won 3-2 in 2018 when Jocelyne Lamoureux scored in a shootout.

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AP Olympic coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Forest Lake is once again looking for a new city administrator.

The Forest Lake City Council decided this week to part ways with City Administrator Mark Statz, who had been on the job for just one year.

Mark Statz (Courtesy of Mark Statz)

The decision to enter into a separation agreement followed Statz’s one-year review, which was held in closed session on Tuesday night, said Mayor Blake Roberts. The decision was mutual, he said.

Statz, who had been city administrator and engineer in Centerville since 2017, began working for Forest Lake on Feb. 18, 2025. Prior to that, he worked in private practice at Stantec for almost 20 years, providing engineering services for cities and towns throughout Minnesota, including Centerville.

“He is a super sharp, intelligent guy,” Roberts said. “He’s got his civil-engineer background, and so he’s going to do really well no matter where he lands. I just think there was a difference between him and our department heads’ and staff’s philosophy on things. When you can’t get the coach and the team on the same page, you just have to make a move, right?”

Statz was hired after almost a year-long search. He followed interim administrator/clerk Kristina Handt, who had previously served as city administrator in Lake Elmo and Scandia; Handt worked at Forest Lake City Hall for 11 months before she was dismissed. In November, she was hired as the interim city administrator/clerk in Grant.

Handt was hired immediately after the Forest Lake City Council in January 2024 decided to part ways with then-City Administrator Patrick Casey, who had served in the city’s top post since 2018.

“It’s been painful … hiring and firing city administrators,” Roberts said. “It’s been a frustrating process.”

Assistant City Administrator Jolleen Chaika has been appointed interim city administrator and plans to serve until a new administrator is hired, he said.

The council will wait until after the November election to launch its search, he said.

“Because Forest Lake has gone through this process a couple times here in the last three years, we feel very confident in (Chaika),” he said. “She’s more than willing to take the role through the end of the year here. Let us get through this election cycle. There could be three new council members.”

Roberts’ term is up this year, as are the terms of council member Leif Erickson, who was elected in 2022, and council member Kevin Miller, who was appointed last year to fill out the remainder of the term previously held by Roberts.

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“Whoever that next (city administrator) is, they want to know they’ll have the same council members for two years that they can work with,” he said. “Good candidates get gun shy about making a switch when (they may) not know who they’re going to be working for.”

Roberts said the city — whether led by an interim or full-time administrator — is “well positioned to move forward.”

“We have a strong, dedicated staff that remains focused and energized, and the council is confident in the organization’s ability to continue advancing important projects, delivering high-quality city services and embracing the many opportunities ahead for our great community,” he said.

The bodies of eight backcountry skiers who died in the largest avalanche in California history Tuesday will not be recovered Thursday due to hazardous weather conditions, officials said.

Recovery operations to extract the group off the mountains are expected to continue into the weekend, according to a social media post from the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office.

One additional skier is missing but presumed deceased.

The nine people were among a group of 15 backcountry skiers on a three-day trip to the Frog Lake Cabins led by Truckee-based outfitter Blackbird Mountain Guides. The group was returning to the trailhead near Castle Peak when the football field-sized avalanche struck. One skier reportedly shouted “Avalanche!” just before the group was overtaken by snow.

Six skiers, including one of the four guides leading the trip, survived. Two were treated at a hospital for non-life threatening injuries they sustained in the avalanche.

Some of those killed in the avalanche have been identified as parents of children in Sugar Bowl’s competitive ski program.

The sheriff’s office added that the identities of the victims will not be confirmed until the bodies have been recovered from the mountain.

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Rescue efforts that began Tuesday have been hampered by hazardous storm weather conditions, with concerns of another avalanche creating increased caution for rescuers responding to the site. Blizzard conditions prevented the removal of bodies Wednesday, though the locations of eight had been marked with poles when they were located.

The disaster marks the deadliest avalanche in California history since the 1982 Alpine Meadows Ski Resort avalanche, which killed seven people. It also ranks among the worst avalanches in North American history, ranking behind a 1981 disaster in Washington in which 11 climbers died. Several other disasters, including a 1991 British Columbia avalanche and a 1999 Quebec avalanche, have had similar fatality numbers, both killing nine.

The guide company, which warned on social media of high avalanche danger just days before the disaster, was cooperating in the investigation. The company has also said that all its guides were trained in avalanche safety.

“The Sheriff’s Office would like to express its continued gratitude to all of our mutual aid partners and volunteers who have worked tirelessly around the clock, initially to save six lives, and who have continuously worked in adverse weather conditions in an effort to bring loved ones safely home,” authorities said in a statement.

By JOEY CAPPELLETTI and OLIVIA DIAZ, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger will deliver the Democratic response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address next week, just months after resoundingly winning an office previously held by a Republican.

The Democratic rebuttal will immediately follow Trump’s address to Congress next Tuesday, offering the party’s most high-profile opportunity to deliver a countermessage.

Spanberger, who served three terms in Congress, became Virginia’s first female governor earlier this year. She won the race by a double-digit margin, campaigning on affordability and lowering costs for families.

“Gov. Spanberger will lay out a clear path forward: lower everyday costs, protect healthcare, and defend the freedoms that define who we are as a nation,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.

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House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in announcing Spanberger as the party’s pick that she “embodies the best of America as a mother, community leader and dedicated public servant.”

On the campaign trail last year, Spanberger also spoke out against the White House’s gutting of the civil service, an issue that hit particularly hard in Virginia, home to a large number of federal workers.

“Those who have devoted their lives to public service, you are worried about an administration that is gilding buildings while schools crumble, breaking the social safety net and sowing fear across our communities,” Spanberger said at her inauguration. “Betraying the values of who we are as Americans.”

Last year’s record-breaking government shutdown also hit the state’s sizable federal workforce, leaving many employees without pay for weeks.

The federal government is once again partially shut down as Democratic leaders in Congress and the White House remain at an impasse over funding for the Department of Homeland Security. The shutdown, which began Saturday, is likely to stretch into Trump’s address Tuesday, with no agreement in sight.

As a former CIA case officer, Spanberger has tied her political career to her public service and national security credentials. She also has pitched herself as a mother of daughters educated in Virginia’s public schools and a Capitol Hill veteran who often worked across the aisle.

In the months since winning the election, she has vowed to work with the president when they are aligned, but also has taken more pointed digs at the White House.

Diaz reported from Richmond, Virginia