DENVER — As Marcus Foligno sat in the Delta Center penalty box, awaiting his freedom after being whistled for a four-minute high sticking infraction, he marveled at the job his penalty-killing teammates did, erasing more than three minutes of Utah’s man advantage at the start of the second period on Thursday.

“They did a good job at the end of that four-minute minor,” said Foligno, who is one of the Minnesota Wild’s most reliable hard-nosed forwards.

Of course, by then, the damage had been done.

Utah scored on a 5-on-3 advantage for a 2-0 lead while Jonas Brodin, called for hooking, was in the box next to Foligno at the end of the first period. Chasing all night, the Wild lost in Salt Lake City, 6-1.

It was not a new issue for this Wild team, which jumped out to a stellar start to the season, and is still in a great position to make the playoffs for the first time under head coach John Hynes. But heading into Friday’s game at Colorado, the Wild had the NHL’s second-worst penalty kill, ranked 31st out of the NHL’s 32 teams statistically.

Only Detroit, which split a two-game series with Minnesota last week, was worse. When the Wild go to the penalty kill, opponents are scoring better than 29 percent of the time.

After one of the Wild’s most lopsided losses of the season, Hynes didn’t pin things specifically on the penalty kill, choosing instead to share the blame.

“I thought for large portions of the night tonight, we got out-skated and got out-competed. We didn’t do a lot,” he said. “We had some stretches where we pushed and we played, but I thought they were faster, harder, more competitive and made more plays.”

The March 7 NHL trade deadline is now less than a week away. For months, the talk has been about forwards, and whether the Wild will make a move to bring pending free agent Brock Nelson “home” from the New York Islanders. Wild general manager Bill Guerin may still look for help on the team’s top two lines, especially with Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek sidelined by lower body injuries with no definite timeline for return.

Some have speculated that if Guerin adds an offensive forward, it will be with an eye toward a playoff run. If so, it could be a sign that either Kaprizov or Eriksson Ek, or both, will be unavailable for much of March, when the Wild play 11 of 15 games at home. But more often than not, the Wild have found enough offense to win, especially with the likes of Matt Boldy, Marco Rossi and Mats Zuccarello leading from the front, and with Filip Gustavsson and Marc-Andre Fleury proving to be a steady tandem in goal.

The penalty kill is clearly the weak spot.

Hynes has talked about staying out of the box and winning more faceoffs as keys to avoiding and surviving two-minute stretches when they’re down a man. As the deadline creeps closer, there is more chatter about the Wild’s interest in forwards of the shutdown variety. Guerin has proven to be adept at knowing what this team needs and finding ways to afford those needs. Inside the quiet Wild locker room on Thursday, there was more talk about the team doing its best with it has.

“This team is solid. I don’t think we need to cry for help,” Foligno said. “Obviously, help is nice, but we’ve just gotta keep pushing forward with what we’ve got. We’ve been doing it all year.”

That’s true, but if this team has designs on playing games in May, there is one area where help does appear to be needed.

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By SOPHIA TAREEN and MELISSA PEREZ WINDER

JOLIET, Ill. (AP) — A jury found an Illinois landlord guilty of murder and hate crime charges Friday for a brutal 2023 attack on a Palestinian American family that killed a 6-year-old.

Joseph Czuba, 73, was charged in the fatal stabbing of Wadee Alfayoumi and the wounding of his mother, Hanan Shaheen on Oct. 14, 2023 in Plainfield, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) from Chicago. Authorities alleged the family — who were renting rooms in Czubas house — was targeted because of their Islamic faith and as a response to the war between Israel and Hamas that erupted on Oct. 7, 2023.

Jurors deliberated less than 90 minutes over the crime that renewed fears of anti-Muslim discrimination in the Chicago area’s large and established Palestinian community.

The trial featured detailed testimony from police officers, medical workers, Czuba’s ex-wife and Shaheen, who described how Czuba attacked her with a knife before going after her son in a different room. Prosecutors say that the child had been stabbed 26 times. He was found naked with a knife still in his side.

Graphic photos of the murder, a knife holder Czuba allegedly used that day, along with police video footage were central to the Will County prosecutors’ case. At times video screens showing explicit footage were turned away from the public viewing audience where members of Wadee’s family sat during the trial.

“If it wasn’t enough that this defendant killed that little boy, he left the knife in the little boy’s body,” Michael Fitzgerald, a Will County assistant state’s attorney, told jurors during opening statements.

Czuba had pleaded not guilty. He faced murder, attempted murder, aggravated battery and hate crime charges in an eight-count indictment.

Defense attorneys insisted pieces of evidence tying Czuba to the crimes were missing. His ex-wife, testifying for the prosecution, could only describe one outburst during their 30 years of marriage and said he carried knives often because he was handy around the house.

“Go beyond the emotions to carefully examine the evidence,” said Kylie Blatti, one of Czuba’s public defenders. “It is easy to get lost in the horror of those images.”

One of the critical parts of the trial was Shaheen’s testimony and the 911 she made to report the crime that happened just days after the war started. She said they had not previously had any issues in the two years they rented from the Czubas. They shared a kitchen and living room with the Czubas.

Then after the start of the war, Czuba told her that they had to move out because Muslims were not welcome. Later, he confronted Shaheen and attacked her, holding her down, stabbing her and trying to break her teeth.

“He told me ’You, as a Muslim, must die,” said Shaheen, who testified in English and Arabic though a translator.

Shaheen had more than a dozen stab wounds and it took her weeks to recover. The boy was later pronounced dead.

Police testified that officers found Czuba outside the house sitting on the ground with blood on his body and hands.

Separately, civil lawsuits have been filed over the boy’s death, including by his the father, Odai Alfayoumi, who is divorced from Shaheen and was not living with them at the house.

The case, which generated headlines around the world, comes amid rising hostility against Muslims and Palestinians in the U.S. since Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023. The U.S. Department of Justice also launched a federal hate crimes investigation.

By PETER SMITH, Associated Press

Vice President JD Vance acknowledged Pope Francis’ criticism of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration, without responding to any of its specifics or to the pontiff’s apparent criticism of Vance’s own deployment of Catholic tradition to justify such policies.

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Vance, a Catholic convert, spoke Friday at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington. He sought to downplay the controversy and said he and his family pray daily for Pope Francis during the 88-year-old pontiff’s hospitalization for pneumonia and other health troubles.

Vance told the gathering he wasn’t there to litigate “about who’s right and who’s wrong,” though he said he would continue to defend his views. But he spoke in conciliatory terms, crediting Francis as one who “cares about the flock of Christians under his under his leadership and the spiritual direction of the faith.”

Vance, who led the gathering in a prayer for Francis’ health, asserted that religious leaders shouldn’t be treated as social-media influencers subject to constant debate.

Francis issued a major rebuke earlier in February to the Trump administration’s plans for mass deportations, warning that it would deprive migrants of their inherent dignity. Francis also apparently responded to Vance directly.

Vance, on social media, had defended the administration’s America-first policies by citing centuries-old teachings on “ordo amoris,” or the order of love, saying people must prioritize their families and those closest to them. Francis, in a subsequent statement, said a true understanding of that teaching is reflected in a “love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.” The pope cited the biblical parable of the Good Samaritan, who took care of a wounded stranger.

On Friday, Vance didn’t address that issue specifically but called himself a “baby Catholic” and acknowledged there are “things about the faith that I don’t know.” Vance became a Catholic in 2019.

He added: “I try to be humble as best I can when I talk about the faith and publicly, because of course, I’m not always going to get it right.”

He also acknowledged taking criticism from bishops, without mentioning what precipitated recent criticism – his claim that the bishops were taking millions of dollars in government aid to “resettle illegal immigrants.”

In fact, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has received millions to resettle legally approved refugees, though it is now battling the Trump administration in court over the cut-off of such funding. One leading cardinal called Vance’s claim “scurrilous.”

Vance also touted the Trump administration’s “protecting the religious liberty of all people, but in particular Catholics.” The administration created a task force focused on eradicating bias against Christians, the predominant religious group in the country.

Vance claimed Friday that the Biden administration “liked to throw people in jail for silently praying.”

Trump has said he pardoned an elderly woman put in jail “because she was praying.” In fact, she and co-defendants were sentenced for blockading an abortion clinic in violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.

Vance acknowledged “you’re certainly not always going to agree with everything that we do,” but he contended it has gone in the “exact opposite direction” of the Biden administration’s strong emphasis on the right to abortion.

Under Trump, the GOP removed a call for a constitutional amendment banning abortion from its 2024 platform, and Trump signed an executive order aiming to reduce costs for in vitro fertilization, which some abortion foes oppose because it can result in embryos being discarded.

Vance, a Marine veteran who served in Iraq, said that over the past four decades, “it has often been historical Christian communities who bear the brunt of failed American foreign policy.” That was an apparent allusion to such things as the U.S. invasion of Iraq’s impact on its Christian minority.

“Perhaps the most important way in which Donald Trump has been a defender of Christian rights all over the world is he has a foreign policy that is oriented towards peace,” Vance said, mentioning Russia, Ukraine and the Middle East by name.

The Catholic minority in Ukraine has been a staunch supporter of its country’s defense against the Russian invasion. Trump was scheduled to meet Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as he hopes to persuade Trump to provide some form of U.S. backing for Ukraine’s security against any future Russian aggression.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

By MEGAN JANETSKY, MATÍAS DELACROIX and JOSHUA GOODMAN, Associated Press

MIRAMAR, Panama (AP) — Officials in Costa Rica and Panama are confiscating migrants’ passports and cellphones, denying them access to legal services and moving them between remote outposts as they wrestle with the logistics of a suddenly reversed migration flow.

The restrictions and lack of transparency are drawing criticism from human rights observers and generating increasingly testy responses from officials, who say their actions are aimed at protecting the migrants from human traffickers.

Both countries have received hundreds of deportees from various nations sent by the United States as President Donald Trump’s administration tries to accelerate deportations. At the same time, thousands of migrants shut out of the U.S. have started moving south through Central America – Panama recorded 2,200 so far in February.

“We’re a reflection of current United States immigration policy,” said Harold Villegas-Román, a political science professor and refugee expert at the University of Costa Rica. “There is no focus on human rights, there is only focus on control and security. Everything is very murky, and not transparent.”

Deportations and reversed migration

Earlier this month, the U.S. sent 299 deportees from mostly Asian countries to Panama. Those who were willing to return to their countries – about 150 to date — were put on planes with the assistance of United Nations agencies and paid for by the U.S.

Venezuelan migrant Luisleibis Navarro carries her son, as he waits to board a boat departing from Panama’s Caribbean coastal village of Miramar to the border with Colombia, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. Migrants are returning from southern Mexico after giving up on reaching the U.S., a reverse flow triggered by President Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Carlos Ruiz-Hernandez, Panama’s deputy foreign minister, said Thursday a small number are in contact with international organizations and the U.N. Refugee Agency as they weigh whether to seek asylum in Panama.

“None of them wants to stay in Panama. They want to go to the U.S.,” he said in a phone interview from Washington. “We cannot give them green cards, but we can get them back home and for a short period of time provide them with medical and psychological support as well as housing.”

Despite Trump’s threats to retake control of the Panama Canal, he said Panama had not acted under U.S. pressure. “This is in Panama’s national interest. We are a friend of the U.S. and want to work with them to send a signal of deterrence.”

Ruiz-Hernandez said some of the deportees remaining in Panama would be given the option of staying at a shelter originally set up to handle the large number of migrants moving north through the Darien Gap.

One Chinese deportee currently detained in the camp, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid repercussions, said she wasn’t given a choice.

Boats transporting migrants depart from the Caribbean coastal village of Miramar, Panama, for the Colombian border, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025, as migrants return from southern Mexico after abandoning hopes of reaching the U.S. in a reverse flow triggered by the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

She was deported to Panama without knowing where they were being sent, without signing deportation documents in the U.S. and without clarity of how long they would be there. She was among the deportees who were moved from a Panama City hotel where some held up signs to their windows asking for help to a remote camp in the Darien region.

Speaking to the AP over messages on a cellphone she kept hidden, she said authorities confiscated others’ phones and offered them no legal assistance. Others have said they’ve been unable to contact their lawyers.

“This deprived us of our legal process,” she said.

Panama President José Raúl Mulino, asked about the lack of access to legal services on Thursday, questioned the idea that migrants would even have lawyers.

“Doesn’t it seem like a coincidence that those poor people have lawyers in Panama?” Mulino said.

‘Black hole for deported migrants’

Costa Rica and Panama have so far denied press access to facilities where they are holding migrants. Panama had initially invited journalists to the Darien this week, but ultimately canceled the visit.

Migrants board a boat at the Caribbean coastal village of Miramar, Panama, bound for the Colombian border, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025, as migrants return from southern Mexico after abandoning hopes of reaching the U.S. in a reverse flow triggered by the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

“Panama cannot end up becoming a black hole for deported migrants,” said Juan Pappier, deputy director of Human Rights Watch in the Americas. “Migrants have the right to communicate with their families, to seek lawyers and Panama must guarantee transparency about the situation in which they find themselves.”

Costa Rica has faced similar criticisms from the country’s independent human rights entity, which has raised alarm over “failures” by authorities to guarantee proper conditions for deportees arriving. The Ombudsman’s Office, said that migrants were also stripped of their passports and other documents, and were not informed about what was happening or where they were going.

Isolation and confusion on the route south

Panama and Costa Rica, long transit countries for people migrating north, have scrambled to address the new flow of migrants going south and organize the flow.

Kimberlyn Pereira, a 27-year-old Venezuelan traveling with her husband and 4-year-old son was among them.

Pereira had waited months for an asylum appointment in Mexico after crossing the perilous Darien Gap dividing Colombia and Panama and traveling up through Central America. But after Trump took office and closed legal pathways to the U.S., she gave up and decided to go home, despite Venezuela’s ongoing crises.

But after a week of being held in a Costa Rican detention facility near the Panamanian border she expressed “hopelessness.”

Officials there had told them they would be flown to Cúcuta, a Colombian city near the Venezuelan border. But they were loaded onto buses and driven to this Panamanian port on the Caribbean sea.

“We do feel a little more protected. They’ve given us food. My only concern is the confusion. This ‘Come here, now go over there, get in this,’” she said.

While she and other migrants spoke to an AP journalist in a public place, Panamanian immigration authorities grew visibly upset and loaded nearly 200 migrants back on buses to drive them to a nearby building. When journalists attempted to follow them, immigration officials temporarily stopped on the side of the road in an attempt to keep them from following.

Panamanian authorities declined to comment on the incident, but after voicing press freedom concerns, the journalists were allowed to catch up to the migrants.

Before dawn Thursday, Pereira and other migrants boarded wooden boats that carried them to near the Colombia-Panama border where they planned to continue their journey. They paid up to $200 each for the ride.

“I don’t understand why they chase off journalists, why we’re so isolated if the government is supposedly helping,” she said.

Janetsky reported from Mexico City and Goodman from Miami.