Experienced gamblers will tell you that Vegas can be lots of fun. But when the slots go cold, the dice won’t cooperate and the cards don’t flip your way, sometimes all you can do is walk away.

Or skate away, in the case of the Minnesota Wild.

Lady Luck was clearly not on the home team’s side Tuesday as they began a three-game homestand, as the Vegas Golden Knights had an answer for every card trick the Wild had in mind. Vegas, the Pacific Division leaders and a possible first round playoff opponent for the Wild, made off with a 5-1 win.

The Wild, who were shut out 3-0 in Dallas on Monday, got a valiant 33-save performance from goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who was playing his final regular-season game versus the franchise he led to the 2018 Stanley Cup Final. Trailing by a pair, they got a third-period goal from Marcus Johansson and made a late push, but came up a few cards short.

Vegas, which ran its winning streak to four games, got 22 saves from goalie Adin Hill and a Jack Eichel hat trick in sweeping their three-game season series with Minnesota.

First-period offense has been in short supply for the Wild in March, and the early game drought continued on Tuesday, as Vegas jumped on the home team early.

Minnesota managed just four shots in the opening 20 minutes and fell behind 1-0 when Eichel popped in the rebound of a shot that Mark Stone had fired, thwarting the best effort by Fleury to stretch out across the yawning goalmouth.

For Eichel, the former Boston University star, it extended his Knights’ franchise single-season points record.

Vegas was playing without leading goal scorer Tomas Hertl for the first time this season. Hertl, who has scored four times in the Golden Knights’ previous two games, was injured in the team’s 4-2 home win over Tampa Bay on Sunday and did not come along on the three-game road trip.

Minnesota got the game’s first power play early in the middle frame when Vegas was caught with too many men on the ice. But the Wild managed just one shot on the man advantage.

Instead, it was the visitors doubling their lead when Brett Howden corralled an errant shot that bounced off the end boards and landed on the edge of the crease to the left of Fleury. Howden was able to slip the puck behind the goalie for a 2-0 Vegas lead before the midway point of the game.

But the Wild got some life early in the third, re-igniting the crowd when Johansson fooled Hill with a shot through traffic to make it a one-goal game again.

They briefly appeared to tie the game later in the third when Marco Rossi deflected a Brock Faber shot past Hill. But officials immediately declared no goal, as Rossi had played the puck with a high stick. The Wild did not challenge the call.

Instead, Eichel ripped a high shot past Fleury on a power play late in the period for his third multi-goal game of the season. Tanner Pearson added a late empty-net goal, and Eichel completed the three-goal night with a shot through Fleury’s pads.

The Wild will welcome one of the NHL’s greatest players, and this season’s greatest sideshows, to St. Paul on Thursday when the Washington Capitals make their only visit of the season.

Caps star forward Alex Ovechkin scored Tuesday night in Winnipeg and needs six goals to tie Wayne Gretzky’s NHL career record. While it is highly unlikely that the record will fall in Minnesota, his pursuit of the milestone has just been one part of the fun for Washington this season, as the Caps are the only team in either conference to have a playoff spot secured.

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A 38-year-old Woodbury man pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court to a sextortion scheme involving two teenage girls.

Timothy Lennard Gebhart pleaded guilty to coercing the girls, ages 16 and 14, to engage in sexually explicit conduct by themselves in order to make pornographic videos and images that he then distributed with his computer and cellphone. Authorities say Gebhart did this multiple times between July 2021 and March 2022 while using aliases and posing as someone younger, including as a teenager.

Timothy Lennard Gebhart (Courtesy of the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office)

In addition, court documents say that Gebhart extorted money and other items of value from the 16-year-old by threatening to send the photos and videos to her family and friends.

The plea documents says the girls are among six victims — from Minnesota, Texas, Indiana and elsewhere — who authorities were able to identify in Gebhart’s sextortion scheme. Other victims have not been identified.

Gebhart pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Paul to two counts of child pornography production and one count each of child pornography distribution and interstate communication with the intent to extort. He faces a mandatory minimum 15-year prison term at sentencing, which has not yet been scheduled.

“Sextortion — threatening to share explicit images of a victim unless they comply with a predator’s demands — is abhorrent,” Acting U.S. Attorney Lisa D. Kirkpatrick said in a statement. “All too often, our children become victims of these monstrous schemes. My office will continue to prosecute these cases to the fullest extent of the law.”

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St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and Craig Leipold, owner of the Minnesota Wild, again made their pitch to state lawmakers for nearly $400 million in state appropriation bonds to fund a makeover of the Xcel Energy Center and the city’s RiverCentre convention center.

They found a more receptive audience in a key Senate panel Tuesday than they did last week with a committee composed of House lawmakers.

They also found a sponsor. State Sen. Clare Oumou Verbeten, DFL-St. Paul, has signed on as an author of the bill, which is still being composed and has yet to be formally introduced.

St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter answers questions about the Xcel Energy Center during a Minnesota Senate Capital Investment Committee hearing in the Senate Building in St. Paul on Tuesday, March. 25, 2025. Joining Mayor Carter is Minnesota Wild Owner Craig Leipold. The city of St. Paul and Minnesota Wild are funds to renovate the Xcel Energy Center. The request is for the state to pay for half of the projected $769 million cost. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

State senators from both parties talked up the importance of having the city-owned X — and the Wild in particular — anchor a downtown that has lost workers, businesses and vitality since the onset of the pandemic and remote work.

State Sen. Karin Housley, R-Stillwater, agreed that downtown St. Paul had become a more desolate and sometimes scarier place in recent years, and she noted the positive impact the Nashville Predators — Leipold’s former National Hockey League team — have had on boosting their downtown after its dog years.

A year-round destination

The mayor reiterated claims that a $769 million renovation of the 25-year-old arena and convention center complex — which already draw some 2 million visitors annually — could boost downtown spending by another $110 million each year. Calling the design of the X outdated, Carter talked up the importance of creating a year-round destination, with cafes, pubs or other exterior, public-facing attractions that would draw interest even when the Wild are not playing.

“Most people come in and out of there and don’t realize this whole huge place, this professional sports arena, has one escalator to get people in and out,” said Carter, addressing reporters after his presentation to the Senate Capital Investment committee. “From a safety perspective, from an ingress and egress perspective, from an accessibility perspective … this arena really is archaic in its design.”

The city has released renderings and other project details on its website at stpaul.gov/xcel-arena-complex-renovation.

Still, the prospect of a $385 million ask from appropriations bonds is no small request given a state budget forecast that predicts deficit spending by the year 2028-2029.

Members of the House Capital Investment Committee appeared more skeptical last week, when state Rep. Maria Perez-Vega, a DFLer who represents downtown, listed a string of human service and infrastructure needs in her district and criticized Carter and Leipold for not first sharing with her the specifics of their request.

Lawmakers have said the appropriations bonds could be paid back in 20 years, adding some $33 million annually to the debt service paid through the state general fund, though Verbeten said her bill would instead call for a 30-year payback window.

“We’re fortunate we don’t have to tear down the arena and start over and rebuild what we have inside,” said Leipold, addressing lawmakers. “If we were going to start over, it would be about $1.1 billion.”

A rendition of the proposed renovation of St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center. (Courtesy of the City of St. Paul)

Other requests for appropriation bond dollars

The arena complex isn’t the only project seeking state backing through appropriation bonds.

Michael Vekich, chair of the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority, told lawmakers Tuesday that he would seek $30 million in state funding toward $85 million in security improvements around U.S. Bank Stadium in downtown Minneapolis, including bollards, anti-climb fencing and crash-rated fencing up to standards recommended but not required by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Vekich said the project is “focusing on the hardening of the perimeter,” he said. “U.S. Bank Stadium is nine years old and the facility is in overall great shape.”

State Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, said while he had not voted for the stadium bill a decade ago, “we do have an obligation to keep this a world-class facility, and “it does make sense for the state to participate.”

Lawmakers noted that a Taylor Swift concert across two nights last June resulted in record hotel occupancy and hefty spending in downtown Minneapolis.

Why appropriation bonds?

The Senate Committee on Capital Investment on Tuesday received a presentation from Senate counsel Stephanie James outlining key differences between appropriation bonds and general obligations bonds, which are used more commonly to fund public projects. Among the differences, appropriation bonds can be used more flexibly than the latter, can be spent on privately-owned projects that carry a public purpose, and require a simple majority of lawmakers for approval instead of a three-fifths supermajority vote.

They’re paid back through annual appropriations that must be reauthorized by the state Legislature, making them riskier investments for bond holders, and therefore carry a higher interest rate. Appropriations bonds helped pay for the Minnesota Vikings stadium in downtown Minneapolis in 2014, the Lewis and Clark regional water system project near the intersection of Minnesota, Iowa and South Dakota in 2016, and environmental clean-up at a series of sites in 2021.

St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, left, talks with state Sen. Clare Oumou Verbeten, DFL-St. Paul, following a Minnesota Senate Capital Investment Committee hearing in the Senate Building in St. Paul on Tuesday, March. 25, 2025. The city of St. Paul and Minnesota Wild are funds to renovate the Xcel Energy Center. The request is for the state to pay for half of the projected $769 million cost. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Sports stadiums aren’t the only tools that city officials are looking to as they hope to revive two struggling urban downtowns.

Gov. Tim Walz announced Tuesday that as of June 1, he would require state employees back to downtown offices at least half-time. Carter noted that City Hall office workers will return to their cubicles three days per week as of April 1.

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Infants need to crawl before they can walk, which is one reason new parents get so excited when their babies become mobile – it’s the first stage on the way to better things.

Similarly, hockey players who have been injured need to begin skating on their own before they can return to practice and eventually return to the game night lineup.

For Minnesota Wild fans eagerly awaiting the return of Joel Eriksson Ek and Kirill Kaprizov from the ailments that have limited them to cameo appearances only in the second half of the season, the hockey version of learning to crawl might be coming this week.

“I would anticipate both players will be skating in the very, very near future,” Wild coach John Hynes said prior to his team’s Tuesday night meeting with Vegas. “Probably earlier than that if possible.”

With 23 goals in 37 games, Kaprizov is still tied for the team lead with Matt Boldy, who has played 71. The Russian superstar has played in just three games since Christmas, and he was shut down roughly two months ago to surgically repair the lower body injury that had him playing at what Hynes estimated was 60 percent capacity.

Eriksson Ek has played in 42 games, with nine goals and 15 assists, but was shelved not long after returning from his stint with Team Sweden at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February.

Both are offensive catalysts on a team that has gone through a notable scoring drought in March. But Wild general manager Bill Guerin insisted at the trade deadline that he expected both of them back in the regular season. With just 10 games left before the playoffs start after Tuesday, that may be a bit of a race to return for both players.

“I think it’s always exciting for them to be able to come back, if and when they do,” Hynes said. “They are both progressing very well. As I said, I would anticipate them hitting the ice here in very short order and get going.”

That potential good news comes on the heels of yet another injury to the defensive corps, after Declan Chisholm left Monday’s game in Dallas in the second period after blocking a shot. Hynes said Chisholm is currently day to day, as is forward Marcus Foligno, who missed his fifth consecutive game on Tuesday.

For the second time in three days, the Wild recalled defenseman Cameron Crotty on an emergency basis from Iowa. He warmed up but did not play, and then was officially sent back down before the game started. Jonas Brodin, who stayed home from the trip to Texas and is taking his return from injury carefully, was back in the lineup on Tuesday.

“If he wasn’t ready to play, he wouldn’t be playing,” Hynes said when asked about Brodin, who he has classified as day to day as well. “Now, in saying that, the intensity level of the games and things like that are hard. So you do have to see how the player responds to coming off of a long=term injury and then and then coming in.”

Milestone watch

Tuesday’s contest versus Vegas was the 300th career game for Wild defenseman Jake Middleton and the 400th for forward Freddy Gaudreau. In addition, goalie Filip Gustavsson got a nice ovation from the crowd when his NHL First Star of the Week honor was acknowledged early in the game.

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