MILAN, Italy — With a roster full of NHL players, Sweden was in danger of the earliest possible exit at the Olympics. Instead, it’s moving on to face the U.S. in the quarterfinals.

Adrian Kempe and Gabriel Landeskog scored in the first period, Jacob Markstrom made 20 saves and Sweden beat Latvia 5-1 in the qualification round on Tuesday.

With all the pressure on — and the possibility looming of being on the NHL player-filled first plane back to North America — the Swedes endured a nervous first 10 minutes before Kempe got them on the board. Landeskog scored 41 seconds later to relieve some of the tension.

Filip Forsberg scored in the second, and Mika Zibanejad and William Nylander added insurance goals in the third. Lucas Raymond, who has been Sweden’s best player minus a costly penalty, had three primary assists.

Sweden has won three of its four games in Milan and is a formidable opponent Wednesday for the unbeaten second-seeded Americans to begin the single-elimination knockout round.

“They’re one of the powerhouses in the world,” U.S. winger Matthew Tkachuk said. “They’ve been playing really well this tournament in some games.

Markstrom has emerged as Sweden’s starting goaltender after the Wild’s Filip Gustavsson started the tournament in that role. It’s entirely possible Markstrom plays on back-to-back nights, a rarity in the NHL

Czechia 3, Denmark 2

David Kampf and Roman Cervenka scored 69 seconds apart in the second period and Czechia beat Denmark  to advance to a quarterfinal showdown against Canada.

Czechia gets a second shot at the tournament favorite after losing to Canada 5-0 last week in their opener. They play on Wednesday.

Martin Necas also scored for the Czechs in a busy second period when the Colorado Avalanche forward one-timed a slap shot past goalie Frederik Andersen on a power play to open the scoring.

Denmark tied it at 1-1 on Alexander True’s goal at 29:02, but Kampf quickly put the Czechs back in front and Cervenka’s goal 69 seconds later made it 3-1. The 40-year-old Cervenka snapped a wrist shot into the top corner over Andersen’s glove.

Nick Olesen’s power-play goal closed the gap before the end of the second.

The Czechs killed off two third period penalties, and goalie Lukas Dostal saved two shots from Oliver Bjorkstrand with less than 25 second left.

“We knew it’s going to be a challenge, and it was,” Czechia winger Ondrej Palat said. “They’re a hard team to play against. They don’t give you much. We won, so big win for us. Joy and relief.”

Germany 5, France 1

Leon Draisaitl and JJ Peterka scored in a three-goal first period and Germany set up a quarterfinal game against Slovakia.

Frederik Tiffels added another when he scored unassisted from a tight angle by snapping a shot off the right side of Julian Junca’s mask and into the net in a dominant opening period for the Germans.

Pierre-Edouard Bellemare had given away the puck on Tiffels’ goal but the France captain scored in the second period by throwing the puck into the crease, where it hit defenseman Moritz Muller and got past goalie Philipp Grubauer.

Joshua Samanski scored a power-play goal in the third and Nico Sturm added an empty-netter for Germany.

Switzerland 3, Italy 0

Switzerland beat, outshooting the host country 51-20.

New Jersey Devils captain Nico Hischier had a goal and two assists. Philipp Kurashev and Roman Josi had the other Swiss goals.

Switzerland next faces Finland.

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By KEN SWEET

NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administration is throwing its support behind the prediction market operators Kalshi and Polymarket in a critical legal battle between the growing prediction market industry and states that wish to ban these platforms.

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The move by Michael Selig, the recently appointed chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, could have enormous implications for how sports betting is regulated in the country and, if Kalshi and Polymarket were to prevail, could erode the ability for states to effectively regulate gambling.

Any friendly decision the CFTC makes on this industry could end up financially benefiting the president’s family as well. President Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., has invested in Polymarket through his venture capital firm and is a strategic advisor for Kalshi.

The CFTC currently regulates prediction markets, and that federal oversight allows Kalshi and others to operate in all 50 states, even those where gambling is illegal. Several states have sued Polymarket and Kalshi, alleging that the companies effectively operate casino or gambling operations in violation of state gambling laws, and have ordered them to shut down or stop operating in their states.

In an opinion piece in the The Wall Street Journal, Selig wrote, “The CFTC will no longer sit idly by while overzealous state governments undermine the agency’s exclusive jurisdiction over these markets by seeking to establish statewide prohibitions on these exciting products.”

Polymarket and Kalshi and other prediction markets allow participants to buy and sell contracts tied to the probable outcome of an event. Customers can wager on everything from whether it will rain in Los Angeles tomorrow to who will in the NBA championship to whether the U.S. and Iran will go to war. The contracts are typically priced between one cent and 99 cents, which roughly translates into what percentage of those customers believe that event will happen.

While customers can bet on anything, roughly 90% of Kalshi’s trading volume goes toward wagers on sports, while roughly half of Polymarket’s trading is tied to sports. Kalshi said it saw more than $1 billion in volume trade on the Superbowl.

The biggest of the lawsuits comes from Nevada, where the Nevada Gaming Control Board sued or issued enforcement actions against Kalshi and Polymarket, saying they are operating unlicensed sports betting operations in the state. A federal judge agreed with the NGCB and issued a temporary restraining order against Kalshi from operating in the state.

In response, Kalshi has appealed the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which is why the CFTC is weighing in through what is known as a “friend of the court” briefing.

As the regulator of commodities, futures and derivatives, the CFTC has historically overseen markets like oil futures, agricultural products, gold, and other financial products. At roughly 700 employees, the CFTC is much smaller than the Securities and Exchange Commission, with roughly 5,000 employees. But as the CFTC has become the favored regulator of cryptocurrency companies and prediction markets proponents, it has taken on a much larger role in financial markets in the last five years.

By stepping into the lawsuit, the Trump administration is taking an unusually broad definition of commodities and futures. Selig has shifted his position from what he told Senators at his confirmation hearing, where he said that it would be best for the CFTC to defer to the courts on the core legal issue facing Kalshi and Polymarket.

Last week Selig announced the the regulator would create an “Innovation Advisory Committee” to help the CFTC draft regulations on issues such as cryptocurrencies and prediction markets. The 35-member panel includes the CEOs of Polymarket, Kalshi, Coinbase, Robinhood, FanDuel and DraftKings. While there’s some representation from traditional finance, the panel has no representation from consumer advocates or public interest groups.

Selig now says that prediction markets effectively do the same thing as other futures contracts, where customers can hedge against bad weather or changes in energy prices, and they are not betting against the house, which is what happens with sports book companies. The states that have taken legal action against Kalshi and Polymarket argue that while these companies do offer customers the ability to bet on future events, the vast majority of their business is sports betting. Further, most prediction markets allow customers 18 years or older to use their platforms, while state gambling is limited to those 21 years or older.

Selig now says states cannot preempt federal regulators.

“To those who seek to challenge our authority in this space, let me be clear, we will see you in court,” Selig said in a video statement.

Some members of the GOP pushed back on Selig’s announcement, including the Governor of Utah, which has some of the strictest gambling laws in the country.

“Mike, I appreciate you attempting this with a straight face, but I don’t remember the CFTC having authority over the “derivative market” of LeBron James rebounds,” said Gov. Spencer Cox, in a statement on Twitter. “These prediction markets you are breathlessly defending are gambling — pure and simple.”

A St. Paul man with a history of traffic violations was charged Tuesday in connection with a fatal hit-and-run that killed a man on a mobility scooter last week.

Erick Gabriel Fuentes-Morales, 21, was charged with one felony count of criminal vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of an accident he caused.

The criminal complaint gave the following details:

About 9:10 p.m. Feb. 11, officers responded to 911 calls about a hit-and-run at Phalen Boulevard near Rose Avenue in St. Paul. When they arrived they found a man on the ground near his mobility scooter and debris from a black car nearby, including a silver Nissan emblem.

The man was unresponsive and was having a seizure. He was taken to the hospital in critical condition. He briefly regained consciousness and was able to tell authorities who he was and that his only relative was his mother with dementia who wouldn’t understand what was happening.

The 66-year-old, Donald John Piele, of St. Paul, died the next day.

Investigators were able to obtain surveillance video that showed Piele in the crosswalk on his scooter when a person speeding in a black sedan hit him. The driver briefly stopped but then drove away.

The investigation led to officers pulling over a vehicle driven by Fuentes-Morales around 12:40 a.m. Friday. The vehicle had damage to the front passenger side, was missing pieces like those found at the scene of the hit-and-run and matched the black sedan’s description, according to the complaint.

The complaint alleges that Fuentes-Morales “appeared nervous and shivered.”

He agreed to speak after being read his right to remain silent. He said he was the only one who drove the vehicle and that the damage occurred a few days earlier when he crashed into a telephone pole. When officers said they had video of him in a crash, he allegedly nodded and said he should have called police.

Then he “looked away and refused to make eye contact when asked if he realized he hit a person,” the complaint said. When officers encouraged  him to be honest he “admitted he knew he hit somebody,” the complaint said.

He denied “driving crazy or drunk,” the complaint said. He didn’t see the person until it was too late to avoid the crash, the complaint said.

When he was asked if he checked on the person he had struck with his vehicle, Fuentes-Morales allegedly said, “he was going to, but he said it was a long story,” the complaint said.

He told officers he had gotten off work at 8 p.m. that night. When officers asked what he did after getting off work and before he hit the man, he allegedly told them he sat in his vehicle and smoked marijuana and cigarettes.

The criminal complaint showed a traffic violation history for Fuentes-Morales that included a 2024 sentence for careless driving; several speeding violations in 2025 including one in which he was accused of passing a marked State Patrol vehicle, and running a red light in Ramsey County in December 2025.

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The Gophers said Tuesday they will bring back the spring football game on Saturday, April 25 at Huntington Bank Stadium.

The U stopped hosting a public intrasquad scrimmage a few years ago due to a string of poor weather on the game’s date and amid concerns about losing current players after the game via the transfer portal. This year, the NCAA went down to one transfer portal window in January.

The Gophers will share details for the upcoming spring game, including its start time, at a later date.

The U encourages fans to bring a personalized, decorated oar to hang in the stadium’s tunnel and to donate baby diaper to help families in need.

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Coming Sunday, another Gophers Super Bowl champion