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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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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Washington Post publisher Will Lewis said Saturday that he’s stepping down, ending a troubled tenure three days after the newspaper said that it was laying off one-third of its staff.

Lewis announced his departure in a two-paragraph email to the newspaper’s staff, saying that after two years of transformation, “now is the right time for me to step aside.” The Post’s chief financial officer, Jeff D’Onofrio, was appointed temporary publisher.

Neither Lewis nor the newspaper’s billionaire owner Jeff Bezos participated in the meeting with staff members announcing the layoffs on Wednesday. While anticipated, the cutbacks were deeper than expected, resulting in the shutdown of the Post’s renowned sports section, the elimination of its photography staff and sharp reductions in personnel responsible for coverage of metropolitan Washington and overseas.

They came on top of widespread talent defections in recent years at the newspaper, which lost tens of thousands of subscribers following Bezos’ order late in the 2024 presidential campaign pulling back from a planned endorsement of Kamala Harris, and a subsequent reorienting of its opinion section in a more conservative direction.

Martin Baron, the Post’s first editor under Bezos, condemned his former boss this week for attempting to curry favor with President Donald Trump and called what has happened at the newspaper “a case study in near-instant, self-inflicted brand destruction.”

Will Lewis, publisher and CEO of The Washington Post, poses for a portrait in Washington, Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post via AP, File)

The British-born Lewis was a former top executive at The Wall Street Journal before taking over at The Post in January 2024. His tenure has been rocky from the start, marked by layoffs and a failed reorganization plan that led to the departure of former top editor Sally Buzbee.

His initial choice to take over for Buzbee, Robert Winnett, withdrew from the job after ethical questions were raised about both he and Lewis’ actions while working in England. They including paying for information that produced major stories, actions that would be considered unethical in American journalism. The current executive editor, Matt Murray, took over shortly thereafter.

Lewis didn’t endear himself to Washington Post journalists with blunt talk about their work, at one point saying in a staff meeting that they needed to make changes because not enough people were reading their work.

This week’s layoffs have led to some calls for Bezos to either increase his investment in The Post or sell it to someone who will take a more active role. Lewis, in his note, praised Bezos: “The institution could not have had a better owner,” he said.

“During my tenure, difficult decisions have been taken in order to ensure the sustainable future of The Post so it can for many years ahead publish high-quality nonpartisan news to millions of customers each day,” Lewis said.

The Washington Post Guild, the union representing staff members, called Lewis’ exit long overdue.

“His legacy will be the attempted destruction of a great American journalism institution,” the Guild said in a statement. “But it’s not too late to save The Post. Jeff Bezos must immediately rescind these layoffs or sell the paper to someone willing to invest in its future.”

Bezos did not mention Lewis in a statement saying D’Onofrio and his team are positioned to lead The Post into “an exciting and thriving next chapter.”

“The Post has an essential journalistic mission and an extraordinary opportunity,” Bezos said. “Each and every day our readers give us a roadmap to success. The data tells us what is valuable and where to focus.”

D’Onofrio, who joined the paper last June after jobs at the digital ad management company Raptive, Google, Zagat and Major League Baseball, said in a note to staff that “we are ending a hard week of change with more change.

“This is a challenging time across all media organizations, and The Post is unfortunately no exception,” he wrote. “I’ve had the privilege of helping chart the course of disrupters and cultural stalwarts alike. All faced economic headwinds in changing industry landscapes, and we rose to meet those moments. I have no doubt we will do just that, together.”

___

David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.

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Goals were tough to come by as the Minnesota and St. Thomas women’s hockey teams took to the ice for the finale of their weekend series on Saturday afternoon at Ridder Arena

The squads played to an official 1-1 draw in the finale of their weekend series at Ridder Arena Saturday afternoon. The Gophers won a shootout to claim two points, with the Tommies earning a point.

In a defensive struggle, it took nearly the entirety of the first period for the first goal to go on the board. The opening tally went to the hosts, as Jamie Nelson’s power-play score put the Gophers up 1-0 just 18 seconds before the first intermission.

It took a long while for the lamp to be lit again, but Jenessa Gazdik’s even-strength goal at 12:10 of the third period forged a 1-1 tie that carried on through the final dozen minutes of regulation and five more minutes of overtime play.

Both goaltenders stood tall in their respective nets, with the Tommies’ Julia Minotti making 22 saves and Gophers netminder Hannah Clark stopping 26 of the 27 shots she faced.

After each team secured its lone point, the strong goalie play continued into the three-round shootout with both sides seeking the added bonus point for a shootout win. Neither team managed to put one in the goal through their first two attempts, but Sydney Morrow finally cracked the code in the third round with the lone tally of the penalty shot duel to give the third-ranked Gophers added consolation to close out the contest.

It was the first official tie of the season for both teams. Minnesota (24-5-1 overall, 18-5-1 WCHA) remained in third place in the WCHA with 55 points, while St. Thomas (12-17-1, 7-16-1) held onto sixth with 23 points.

The Gophers head out on the road next weekend for a crucial WCHA series at second-ranked Ohio State. By the time the puck drops in Columbus, Ohio next Friday night, the Buckeyes may be the top-ranked team in the country based on their 4-1 win at current No. 1 Wisconsin Saturday evening. The Badgers host Ohio State for their series finale on Sunday afternoon.

St. Thomas’ schedule doesn’t ease up much next weekend as the Tommies head north to take on No. 6 Minnesota-Duluth on Friday and Saturday.

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