For the Minnesota Wild fans waiting for someone to step up and provide an offensive spark in the midst of their non-stop injury parade, forward Matt Boldy re-introduced himself to the audience in St. Paul on Thursday.

The Wild, in desperate need of points as the Western Conference playoff race tightens, trailed Washington late in the second period when Boldy set up the tying goal and scored the go-ahead goal in a game Minnesota won 4-2 on Thursday at Xcel Energy Center.

The win snapped a two-game losing streak and gave the Wild some much-needed confidence back after they had scored just one goal in the previous two losses.

Filip Gustavsson turned in a 28-save night for his 29th win of the season, and the Wild got two Freddy Gaudreau goals — one on the power play and one into an empty net — and an early goal from Jon Merrill as they work to hold off hard-charging St. Louis in the race for the final two playoff positions.

Charlie Lindgren, the former St. Cloud State standout, had 17 saves for the Capitals, who hadn’t lost a game in regulation for two weeks. They got goals from Matt Roy and Brandon Duhaime to lead 2-1 after 20 minutes, but could not find the equalizer after Minnesota took the last lead.

The myriad fans who came to see Capitals star Alex Ovechkin and his pursuit of the NHL’s career goals record left disappointed. Ovechkin had three shots on Gustavsson, and had a mini-breakaway in the third period thwarted by Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin, who caught Ovechkin from behind and swatted the puck away.

Ovechkin left Minnesota still needing five goals to tie Wayne Gretzky’s NHL-best mark of 894.

In a touching moment after the final horn, all of the Capitals lined up to shake hands with Wild goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who is retiring at the end of this season.

Minnesota struck first when Merrill’s shot from long distance found its way through a maze of bodies in front of the Washington net and past Lindgren’s glove hand. It was just the second goal of the season for Merrill, who has been one of the Wild’s more durable players this season.

The lead was short-lived, as Capitals defenseman Roy zipped a shot past Gustavsson just 68 seconds later. Minnesota trailed before the first period was half over, as Gustavsson stopped a shot only to have former Wild forward Duhaime pop in the rebound. The Wild coaches challenged the play for potential goalie interference, but the goal was allowed to stand and Washington was awarded a power play for the unsuccessful challenge.

With the Wild using five forwards on the power play for the first time this season, they were held without a shot on their initial man advantage of the game. But in the second period, when Capitals defenseman Martin Fehervary went to the penalty box for holding, the Wild’s quintet of forwards clicked.

They tied the game when Boldy, manning the blue line, blasted a shot that deflected off Gaudreau’s stick on the way past Lindgren. Boldy then gave Minnesota the lead for a second time with 8.5 seconds left in the middle frame, corralling a Vinnie Hinostroza pass from behind the net and popping a high shot over Lindgren from just inches outside the crease.

Wild forward Marcus Foligno returned to the lineup after a five-game absence due to an upper body injury. Fourth-liner Brendan Gaunce was scratched to make room for Foligno. The Wild were also without defenseman Declan Chisholm, who missed his second consecutive game following an injury suffered in Monday’s loss at Dallas.

The Wild’s stretch of playing 10 of 11 games at home concludes on Saturday as the New Jersey Devils make their only visit of the season to Xcel Energy Center. The game is slated for 5 p.m. CT.

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ST. LOUIS — Pablo López talked of setting the tone for the game, for the series, for the season a day before making his third consecutive Opening Day start for the Twins.

Surely, a day as uncharacteristic as the one he had on Thursday was not what he envisioned. Twice, he had a runner break for second and was in position to throw him out. Twice, something went wrong. And twice, López was hurt by a two-strike changeup which led to a St. Louis Cardinals run.

When all was said and done, the starter had surrendered four runs (two earned), issued a costly balk and threw a ball away trying to nab a runner at second.

After a rain delay that lasted nearly 2 hours, López gave up runs in each of the first three innings and the Twins would never recover, falling 5-3 at Busch Stadium to open the 2025 season.

After former Twin Sonny Gray sent the Twins down on six pitches in the top of the first, López labored through the first inning, allowing a single, issuing a balk that caused Rocco Baldelli to emerge from the dugout to get an explanation and then allowing another pair of hits.

An inning later, after the Twins had stranded the bases loaded in the top of the second, Lars Nootbar got ahold of a two-strike changeup and sent it out to right field, bringing in two runs. That followed a throwing error in which López’s throw to catch the runner attempting to steal went into the outfield rather than shortstop Carlos Correa’s glove.

López’s day ended in the fifth, at which point he had given up four runs and been outpitched by his former rotation-mate, Gray. Gray was unscored upon until the fifth inning when former Cardinal Harrison Bader, who was greeted earlier with a round of applause from the fans, took a pitch out to left field for a two-run home run.

The Twins tacked on another run in the sixth inning with Willi Castro coming through with an RBI double to score Trevor Larnach, right after Ty France had been robbed of extra bases by center fielder Victor Scott II. But they wouldn’t get any closer than that as Griffin Jax allowed a home run to Nolan Arenado in the eighth, and the Twins left Bader on second to end the game.

St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Sonny Gray (54) pitches during the fourth inning of an opening-day baseball game against the Minnesota Twins on Thursday, March 27, 2025 in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Michael Thomas)
Carlos Correa #4 of the Minnesota Twins greets teammates before the game against the St. Louis Cardinals on Opening Day at Busch Stadium on March 27, 2025 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Joe Puetz/Getty Images)
St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Lars Nootbaar (21) scores during the first inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins on Thursday, March 27, 2025 in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Michael Thomas)

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A 76-year-old woman was struck and killed while crossing a White Bear Township road on Thursday afternoon by a driver who left the scene but soon went to police, according to the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office.

The collision happened around 4:22 p.m. at the intersection of White Bear Parkway and Birch Lake Boulevard North at the township’s border with White Bear Lake.

Witnesses said the motorist was headed north on White Bear Parkway in an Ford SUV while the woman was walking east in the crosswalk of Birch Lake Boulevard, said Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Jake Olson. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene.

The intersection has stop signs on Birch Lake Boulevard, but not on White Bear Parkway, Olson said. The speed limit in the area is 40 mph.

Deputies received an update at 4:43 p.m. that the driver had gone to the White Bear Lake police station, Olson said, adding that the motorist is now cooperating with the investigation. Olson declined to provide additional information, including the sex and age of the driver.

The victim wasn’t immediately named, pending positive identification and notification of next of kin.

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By JIM VERTUNO, Associated Press

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A federal judge’s rebuke of Texas housing prisoners in lockups without air conditioning stopped short of ordering a fix before summer in what has become of one the country’s biggest lawsuits over keeping prisoners safe during dangerous extreme heat.

But U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman’s warnings to Texas to act after finding the conditions in the prison system unconstitutional could resonate elsewhere in the U.S. where similar challenges are ongoing, according to attorneys leading the Texas case and other prisoner advocates.

Texas is just one of several states, mostly in the South, facing lawsuits over prison conditions when temperatures often rise above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. In Louisiana, a group of men incarcerated at a state penitentiary this week again asked a federal judge to take steps to protect prisoners doing outdoor agricultural labor in dangerous heat.

“Texas is the largest prison system in the country and the judge found it to be acting in an unconstitutional manner and indifferent to dangerous conditions,” said Jeff Edwards, lead attorney in the Texas case.

“Every warden and leader of a correctional system is going to be aware of it,” Edwards said. “It sends an incredibly powerful message.”

FILE – An inmate works outdoors during the hot summer outside a Texas prison unit in Huntsville, Texas, on June 25, 2015. (Rose Baca/The Dallas Morning News via AP, File)

The Texas case will not have authority over prisons in other states. But Corene Kendrick, deputy director of the ACLU National Prison Project, said the judge’s findings will be significant for lawsuits with the same issues of extreme heat, limited or no air conditioning, and inmates at risk of dying.

“It’s influential,” Kendrick said.

Texas has more than 130,000 people in prisons. Only about a third of roughly 100 prison units are fully air-conditioned, and the rest have either partial or no electrical cooling.

The lawsuit was initially filed in 2023 by Bernie Tiede, the former mortician serving a life sentence whose murder case inspired the movie “Bernie.” Several prisoners’ rights groups then asked to join his legal fight and expand it.

Several people who were formerly incarcerated in Texas testified that inmates would fake suicide attempts to be moved to cooler medical areas, while some would set fires so that guards would be forced to hose down cells.

Texas officials acknowledged that heat may have been a factor in a handful of deaths in 2023 but dispute claims that the impact has been far greater. On Thursday, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said it has asked lawmakers for $118 million to install air conditioning for about 16,000 more beds.

“TDCJ is dedicated to continuing to add air-conditioned beds in our facilities,” the agency said.

In Louisiana, a federal judge last year ordered prison officials to increase shaded areas, schedule additional breaks, provide sunscreen and medical checks to those especially vulnerable to high temperatures.

But the order did not shut down work on a former slave plantation when heat indexes reach 88 degrees Fahrenheit (31.1 degrees Celsius) or higher, which was what the plaintiffs had requested.

The judge’s order has since expired and a group of inmates filed a new request for help.

“As we enter the summer season in Louisiana, the State continues to force incarcerated people to work in the fields of a former plantation, under dangerous conditions, putting them at extreme risk of heat-related illness,” said Samantha Pourciau, Senior Staff Attorney at the Promise of Justice Initiative.

The Louisiana Department of Correction did not immediately respond for comment.

A federal lawsuit in New Mexico claims eight inmates were confined for hours in stifling summer heat in a prison transport van without working air conditioning. In Georgia, prison officials face a federal lawsuit from the family of a man who said he died after he was left in an outdoor cell without water, shade or ice in July 2023.

The Texas case will proceed toward trial, where the judge warned the state of the likelihood it could be ordered to spend billions to install permanent air conditioning.

The Texas Legislature is in session and currently writing the two-year state budget. Lawmakers have filed at least three bills that would provide some relief.

Temperatures are rising as the Texas summer approaches. Some areas of the state have already hit above 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

“I’m regretful we can’t protect them with relief this summer,” Edwards said. “But we will move as fast as we can.”

Associated Press journalists Sara Cline in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Kate Brumback in Atlanta, Morgan Lee in Santa Fe, New Mexico and Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix contributed.