The United States team of Minnesotans Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin suffered its first setbacks of the 2026 Winter Olympics on Saturday, defeated 6-4 by Great Britain and 6-5 in an extra end by South Korea in Cortina D’Ampezzo, Italy.

The afternoon loss to the British team wasn’t necessarily surprising, as Team GB is undefeated and now already qualified for the semifinals with two matches to spare. However, the Korea game required a highly complicated shot in the eighth end just to force an extra end against a team that lost its first five games by a combined score of 43-18.

Still, the Americans (4-2) are tied for second in the 10-team field with three matches to go and control their own destiny toward making the semifinals on Monday night.

The Great Britain game started badly, as the Americans needed to do damage control to prevent their opponents from scoring more than two in the first end, and then gave up a steal of one.

Thiesse, who had the best shooting percentage of any player over the first three days of competition, made a great shot for three to tie the game in the fifth end.

The British regained the lead with one in the sixth and extended it after Thiesse’s attempted double takeout hit at the wrong angle to conclude end seven and gave them a steal of one.

With the penultimate stone in the eighth, Dropkin went for a big takeout to remove all or some of four British stones in the scoring area and missed wide, leading to their eventual concession.

In the evening match against Korea, the US fell behind in similar fashion, allowing a point in the first and a steal of one in the second.

In a low-scoring game, the Americans went to the eighth end down 5-2. With the last stone of regulation, Thiesse triggered a three-part collision that netted the Americans the points they needed to tie it but one Korean stone remained just close enough to prevent a walk-off win for Team USA.

The Koreans had the hammer in the extra end and after Thiesse’s last stone went too deep, Korea had a simple shot down the middle to score the winning point and earn their first win in the tournament.

The Americans will regroup for a 7:35 a.m. CST match vs. 2-4 Estonia, to be followed by what could be a vital matchup with 4-3 Sweden at 12:05 p.m. CST.

With two-thirds of the round-robin complete, the US has a full-game lead over fifth-place Switzerland and Canada, both teams Thiesse and Dropkin have defeated. The round-robin concludes Monday morning in Italy with Thiesse and Dropkin facing defending champions Italy.

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The St. Thomas men’s basketball team continued its dominance over any Summit Conference team not from the Peace Garden State by routing visiting Oral Roberts on Saturday night in St. Paul.

A 53-point second half turned a close game into a runaway victory as the Tommies bested the Golden Eagles 92-75 at the Lee & Penny Anderson Arena for the team’s 20th win of the season.

Nolan Minessale led all scorers with 28 points while fellow guard Nick Janowski recorded 24 points while sinking two of St. Thomas’ six three-pointers in the contest.

With the victory, the Tommies (20-6 overall, 9-2 Summit) remained one game behind North Dakota State (20-6, 10-1) and one game ahead of North Dakota (14-13, 8-3) in the Summit League standings. The Bison and Fighting Hawks are the only two conference teams to have defeated St. Thomas this season.

The Tommies now prepare to embark on a three-game road trip that begins Thursday night at 7 p.m. in Omaha. The excursion also includes stops in Kansas City and Denver before St. Thomas returns home Feb. 26 to take on the Bison in a rematch of a 68-65 loss in Fargo on Jan. 17 before hosting Omaha in the regular-season finale on Feb. 28.

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Saturday’s series finale at Bowling Green started off well for the 15th-ranked St. Thomas men’s hockey team, but it fizzled fast.

Alex Gaffney scored his 17th goal of the season to put the visitors on the board just 56 seconds after puck drop, but that turned out to be the only offense of the night as the Tommies fell 3-1 to the Falcons in Ohio.

After the hosts were penalized for a crosscheck just 12 seconds into the contest, Gaffney sent a laser past Bowling Green goaltender Jacob Steinman to swiftly put St. Thomas on top. Unfortunately for the Tommies, Steinman wasn’t beaten again. He made 31 saves as the Falcons knotted the game at 1-all by the end of the first.

The hosts added two more goals in the second period past St. Thomas netminder Aaron Trotter — who made 20 saves — to skate away with the series split.

It was just the second loss in 11 games since the calendar flipped to 2026 for the Tommies (18-9-3 overall, 15-5-2 CCHA) and the first non-shootout win for Bowling Green (15-7-6, 12-5-3).

The loss slashed the St. Thomas’ lead atop the CCHA standings was slashed to just two points over Michigan Tech (20-10-2, 15-5-2), who wrapped up a weekend sweep of the CCHA’s third-position team, Augustana (18-9-3, 12-7-3) with a 4-3 victory on Saturday.

Augustana is next up on the Tommies’ schedule, with the Vikings coming to St. Paul for a two-game series that begins at 7:07 p.m. Friday at the Lee & Penny Anderson Arena. The series will be broadcast on CCHA TV.

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Meet the Minnesotans competing in the 2026 Winter Olympics

TUCSON, Ariz. — Savannah Guthrie told the potential kidnappers of her mother Nancy Guthrie on Saturday that the family is prepared to pay for her safe return, as the frantic search for the 84-year-old Arizona resident has entered a seventh day.

“We received your message, and we understand. We beg you now to return our mother to us so that we can celebrate with her,” she said in a video posted on social media, flanked by her siblings. “This is the only way we will have peace. This is very valuable to us, and we will pay.”

The “Today” show host was referencing a message that was sent to the Tucson-based television station KOLD on Friday afternoon, according to Kevin Smith, a spokesperson for the FBI office in Phoenix.

KOLD said it received an email related to the Guthrie case on social media that day but declined to share specific details about its contents as the FBI conducted its review.

The station was one of multiple press outlets that received alleged ransom letters during the week. At least one letter made monetary demands and established Thursday evening and the following Monday evening as deadlines.

Savannah Guthrie, right, and her mom Nancy speak Wednesday, April 17, 2019, in New York. (Nathan Congleton/NBCUniversal via AP)

In a news conference Thursday, law enforcement officials declined to affirm that the letters were credible but said all tips were being investigated seriously. They also said one letter referenced Nancy Guthrie’s Apple watch and a specific feature of her property.

The video released Saturday was the third this week that pleaded with potential kidnappers.

No suspects identified

Investigators think Nancy Guthrie was taken against her will from her home just outside Tucson last weekend. DNA tests showed blood on Guthrie’s front porch was a match to her, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has said. Authorities have not identified any suspects or ruled anyone out.

The sheriff said Friday that he was frustrated that a camera at Nancy Guthrie’s home was not able to capture images of anyone the day she went missing.

Investigators have found that the home’s doorbell camera was disconnected early Sunday and that software data recorded movement at the home minutes later. But Nancy Guthrie did not have an active subscription, so none of the images were able to be recovered.

“It is concerning, it’s actually almost disappointing, because you’ve got your hopes up,” Nanos told The Associated Press in an interview. “OK, they got an image. ‘Well, we do, but we don’t.’”

President Donald Trump, speaking on Air Force One on Friday, said the investigation was going “very well.”

“We have some clues that I think are very strong,” Trump said, while en route to his Florida estate. “We have some things that may be coming out reasonably soon.”

Investigators return to scene

They were back in Nancy Guthrie’s neighborhood on Friday.

The sheriff’s department posted on social media to say access was restricted to the road in front of the home to give investigators space. Journalists staked out there were directed to move.

The Catalina Foothills Association, a neighborhood group, told residents in a letter that authorities were resuming searches in the area immediately.

“I know we all stand together in our collective disbelief and sadness and greatly appreciate your willingness to speak with law enforcement, share camera images and allow searches of your properties,” the association president said in the letter.

The sheriff said Thursday that investigators have not given up on trying to retrieve camera recordings.

“I wish technology was as easy as we believe it is, that here’s a picture, here’s your bad guy. But it’s not,” Nanos told the AP. “There are pieces of information that come to us from these tech groups that say ‘this is what we have and we can’t get anymore.’”

The sheriff also said he had no new information about the note to the TV station or other purported ransom letters sent to some media outlets, saying the FBI is handling that side of the investigation.

Meanwhile concern about Nancy Guthrie’s health condition has grown, because authorities say she needs vital daily medicine. She is said to have a pacemaker and have dealt with high blood pressure and heart issues, according to sheriff’s dispatcher audio on broadcastify.com.

“Her conditions, I would imagine, are worsening day by day,” Nanos said. “She requires medication. And I have no way of knowing whether they’re getting that medication to her.”

The kidnapping has captured the attention of Americans, including Trump, who said he was directing federal authorities to help investigate.

___ Weber reported from Los Angeles.

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