Greg Zanon has gained a firm grasp of what’s required to reach the state tournament since taking over as Stillwater’s head boys coach in 2019 – a lot.

“Obviously the state tournament is always the goal, and we haven’t been able to do that,” Zanon said. “We had some good teams along the way, and we had some unfortunate things happen in certain games.”

Sometimes it’s a bad bout of puck luck. Other times it’s an injury. Stillwater lost Cooper Wylie, now a key defenseman for St. Cloud State, ahead of the playoffs in 2020 as the then senior battled stomach ulcers. Other kids miss time for various reasons.

The Stillwater Ponies head coach Greg Zanon celebrates defeating the Hill Murray Pioneers In in the 2025 MSHSL Class 2A Section 4 Championship at Aldrich Arena in Maplewood on Friday, Feb. 28, 2025. Matt Blewett/Special to Pioneer Press

The stars often have to align for a deep postseason run. And, this season, the Ponies time has finally arrived. Zanon has Stillwater in the state tournament for just the third time ever, and the first since 2016.

The second-seeded Ponies will meet seventh-seeded Andover in the Class 2A quarterfinals at 11 a.m. Thursday at Xcel Energy Center.

“This year just really unfolded the way we’d hoped,” Zanon said. “Our players need, obviously, the most credit of all. They’re the ones that come every day and listen and put in the time to do what they need to do to make things happen. It’s been one heck of a ride, I’ll tell you that.”

One driven by a deep, talented crop of seniors. The Ponies have six players with 40-plus points this season, the top five of those – Brody Dustin, Trey Fredenberg, Blake Vanek, Matthew Volkman and Luke Myers – are seniors, with the sixth-leading scorer being junior Luca Jarvis.

Zanon said that scoring talent spread across two dynamic lines gives Stillwater “a little bit of an advantage” in that it’s likely at least one will produce on the scoresheet each time out, and it doesn’t matter which.

In Stillwater’s section final upset of Hill-Murray, it was the line of Frederburg, Jarvis and Volkman posting most of the production, with Volkman netting a hat trick, including the winner in the second overtime. But it could very well be the other line’s turn at some point this weekend.

“We’ve talked about this for a month or so – we don’t need one hero,” Zanon said. “Eventually, it turns into one hero, but we need the team playing like a group. One line going out there, and maybe you don’t score, but you’re setting up the next line for a possible opportunity, and just kind of rolling from line to line and making sure that, when you’re out there and it’s on your stick, you can deliver, and that’s what we’ve gotten out of our group this year.”

Zanon and assistant coach Thomas Vanek are both former NHLers – both of whom also had stints with the Wild. Yet neither truly knows what to expect this week in St. Paul. The players have attended the tournament as fans, but you don’t get a true feel for the lights until the skates hit the ice.

But an advantage for the Ponies this week as they attempt to win three games in three days to claim the program’s first state title is the team’s adaptability – a likely product of a veteran-laden roster.

“We’re able to watch video on a team and go into a practice before a game and are able to teach them something new that might be able to help them, and we’re able to go and do it right away,” Zanno said. “This group of guys and their ability to adapt to situations and things we throw at them is just amazing.”

He wasn’t sure what to expect from his players at Monday’s practice, just a couple days removed from an emotionally-charged section final victory. Perhaps he shouldn’t have been surprised to find his kids were ready to work.

Zanon noted it was “pure joy” when Volkman potted the game winner on Friday. There was an immediate feeling of “Yes!” But he nor Thomas Vanek were ecstatic for themselves. They’ve had their own runs of hockey successes.

“(We) wanted it more for the kids than for ourselves, because we know the effort and the work that they’ve put in, and the demand we’ve put on them in practices and off-ice workouts. They don’t shy away and they take everything that we tell them and they try to implement it,” Zanon said. “The joy that they get out of this is why we do this, is why we try to give back to our community after we played our time. Our time is done, and now it’s our job to just give back, and hopefully (the kids) have the greatest weekend of their lives.”

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By MARK THIESSEN

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An avalanche in Alaska backcountry swept up and buried three skiers under a blanket of snow that could be as deep as a 10-story building, Alaska State Troopers said Wednesday.

While troopers have not been able to assess the site yet, “based on the information provided by the operator, unfortunately, we do not believe that any of the three missing persons survived the avalanche,” Austin McDaniel, a spokesperson for the Alaska State Troopers, said in a text to The Associated Press.

If the deaths are confirmed it would be the deadliest U.S. avalanche since three climbers were killed in a slide in Washington’s Cascade Mountains two years ago.

The slide happened late Tuesday afternoon near the skiing community of Girdwood, located about 40 miles (64 kilometers) south of Anchorage, said McDaniel.

Guides from the heli-skiing company attempted to locate the skiers. Using avalanche beacons, the guides identified a probable area where the skiers were buried, at a depth of 40 feet (12 meters) to 100 feet (30 meters), McDaniel said in a later email.

“The guides were unable to recover the three skiers due to the depth. Due to considerable avalanche risk in this area and limited daylight, no further recovery operations were conducted on March 4,” he said. “If weather and conditions allow for it, Troopers plan to assess avalanche conditions from the air and determine recovery options with individuals that have experience making avalanche recoveries.”

The avalanche site is 8 miles northeast of the airport in Girdwood.

Girdwood is the skiing capital of Alaska, and home to the Alyeska Resort, at the base of Mount Alyeska, where people downhill ski or snowboard amid stunning views of Turnagain Arm. At the top of the mountain is the Seven Glaciers Restaurant, named for its view.

Heli-skiing is using a helicopter to reach the top of a mountain in remote backcountry areas where there are no ski lifts, and a person either skis or snowboards down the mountain.

Each winter, 25 to 30 people die in avalanches in the U.S., according to the National Avalanche Center.

Fifteen people have been killed across the U.S. by avalanches so far this winter. Among them were 10 backcountry skiers or snowboarders, four people on snow machines and a ski patroller, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.

Colorado experiences the most avalanche deaths, with 325 people killed since 1950. Alaska ranks second, with 172 deaths in that time period, according to the center.

In 2021, Czech billionaire Petr Kellner and four others died in a helicopter crash during a heliskiing tour near Knik Glacier, in the Chugach Mountains just north of Anchorage. A year later, a heli-ski guide scouting an area for clients died when an avalanche carried his body nearly 1500 feet (457 meters) down a mountain, Alaska State Troopers said at the time.

There have been several deaths reported elsewhere this year.

One person was killed in an avalanche in central Colorado on Feb. 22. Authorities in Grand County responded to what they described as a skier-triggered avalanche in a steep area known as “The Fingers” above Berthoud Pass. It was the second reported avalanche in the county that day.

That avalanche death was the third in Colorado this winter and the second fatality in less than a week in that state, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. A Crested Butte snowboarder was killed Feb. 20 in a slide west of Silverton.

Elsewhere, three people died in avalanches Feb. 17 — one person near Lake Tahoe and two backcountry skiers in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains. On Feb. 8, a well-known outdoor guide was caught in an avalanche in Utah and was killed.

Associated Press writers Becky Bohrer in Juneau and Matthew Brown in Missoula, Montana, contributed to this report.

The investing information provided on this page is for educational purposes only. NerdWallet, Inc. does not offer advisory or brokerage services, nor does it recommend or advise investors to buy or sell particular stocks, securities or other investments.Whether leaving the workforce is just around the corner or decades away, it’s always a good time to consider: Are you financially on track to retire?

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A NerdWallet survey, conducted online by The Harris Poll in October 2024, found that just 23% of Americans had evaluated their progress toward retirement savings goals in the prior 12 months. To check in on how you’re doing, the first step is likely figuring out what number you’re aiming for.

Set your retirement goal

It may be tempting to measure your retirement savings against other people your age, but like many financial goals, this one is personal. How much money you need in retirement depends on factors like the cost of living in the place you hope to retire, whether there are loved ones to support and how you plan to spend your golden years. A good question to ask yourself is “how much money do I need to retire the way I want to?”

There are many unknowns between now and 20, 30 or 40 years in the future. But a good starting point is calculating how much you’ll need in retirement income. This involves looking at your current expenses, deciding which ones will increase or decrease by the time you retire, and then adding in any additional spending you plan to do once you leave the workforce.

If you’d rather use a general rule of thumb to calculate, you might assume you’ll need between 70% and 90% of your current income in retirement. Most people don’t need as much money in retirement to continue their current lifestyle because they’re no longer saving for retirement, nor are they paying payroll taxes or other work-related expenses.

Calculate how much you need to save

With an idea of how much you’ll need in retirement, use a retirement calculator to determine if you’re saving enough to hit that goal. In the calculator, input your age, current savings, monthly contributions and monthly retirement budget. You can also adjust factors like retirement age, rate of return, life expectancy and expectations around raises and inflation.

If your existing retirement savings and monthly contributions won’t get you to your savings goal, adjust your contributions in the calculator to see how much more you need to save. Keep in mind, this is a ballpark estimate and planning for future unknowns is difficult. But having a target retirement income and knowing what it takes to get there makes your progress measurable. Plus, this goal can be adjusted as you get closer to retirement age.

Start increasing your savings, if needed, to hit your goals

Just a quarter of Americans (25%) had taken steps to increase their retirement savings in the prior 12 months, according to the survey. If the calculator exercise showed that your existing savings and contributions are on track, great! Carry on. But if you need to start saving more, consider:

Setting up automatic contribution increases. Some retirement accounts allow you to set up annual increases. So for example, you could set up your 401(k) contributions to automatically go up by 1% each year. (Depending on your plan and the size of the company you work for, this may be done for you automatically, if you don’t opt out.) Over time, this could make a big difference, even if the change seems small.

Let’s say your salary is $50,000 and you’re currently contributing 10%, or $5,000 a year. It may not seem like a big win to increase that to 11%, or $5,500 a year, but that extra $500 in annual contributions could be worth more than $49,000 in 30 years at a 7% return. And that’s assuming you don’t continue increasing your contributions each year.

Saving your raises. If you can do without it, invest your next raise for retirement. This could mean increasing your 401(k) or 403(b) contribution, or putting the extra funds into a Roth IRA. Don’t want to save all of it? Put a portion of it away instead. Every little bit helps.

Evaluating your spending and debt payoff. Track your spending for a few months and then examine if there’s anything you could reasonably reduce or cut out to free up more money to invest.

As for debt payoff, if you’re aggressively paying off low interest debt — such as that with interest rates below 5% — it might be worth considering whether some of that extra money is better off saved for retirement while you slow down debt payoff progress. Ideally, you should aim to work on several important financial goals, like investing for retirement, saving up an emergency fund and paying off debt, simultaneously, to get all of your financial ducks in a row. At the very least, make sure you’re contributing enough to get the company match on your retirement funds, before allocating more money toward low-interest debt.

The complete survey methodology is available in the original article, published at NerdWallet.

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Erin El Issa writes for NerdWallet. Email: erin@nerdwallet.com.

By SIMINA MISTREANU and KEN MORITSUGU

BEIJING (AP) — The Chinese government unveiled an annual economic growth target of “around 5%” on Wednesday, despite the possible negative impact of a looming trade war with the United States, and pledged to address what it called “sluggish” consumer spending at home.

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The target was announced at the opening session of the annual meeting of China’s legislature. It’s the same as for the last two years but will likely be more difficult to achieve because of the new, higher U.S. tariffs on Chinese products and other economic headwinds. The use of “around” gives the government some room if growth falls short.

The target signals the government’s intention to try to stabilize growth in challenging economic times but hold back on more dramatic action that some economists say is needed to supercharge it.

The government also said in a draft budget released Wednesday that defense spending would rise 7.2% this year to 1.78 trillion yuan ($245 billion), second only to the United States.

It released the growth target in a separate report, parts of which were presented to the nearly 3,000 members of the National People’s Congress by Premier Li Qiang. It acknowledged both international and domestic challenges.

“An increasingly complex and severe external environment may exert a greater impact on China in areas such as trade, science, and technology,” the report said, without specifics. “Unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise.”

It added: “Domestically, the foundation for China’s sustained economic recovery and growth is not strong enough. Effective demand is weak, and consumption, in particular, is sluggish.”

The International Monetary Fund has projected that China’s economy will grow 4.6% this year, down from 5% in 2024, according to Chinese government statistics.

The new report placed more emphasis on reviving domestic demand and consumption than last year’s, echoing a shift by the ruling Communist Party at meetings in December. It said the government should “make domestic demand the main engine and anchor of economic growth.”

The report added that “achieving this year’s targets will not be easy, and we must make arduous efforts to meet them.”

Across-the-board 20% tariffs imposed this week on Chinese products by U.S. President Donald Trump pose the latest threat to an economy already weighed down by a prolonged real estate slump and sluggish consumer spending and private business investment. The tariffs could crimp sales to one of China’s major export markets, making the need to boost domestic demand more urgent.

The new report offered some details on the party’s plans for a “more proactive fiscal policy,” including a rise in the government budget deficit from 3% to 4% of GDP, or the size of the overall economy. It also reiterated the party’s announcement in December that the central bank would shift its monetary policy from “prudent” to “moderately loose” for the first time in more than a decade.

The government will issue 1.3 trillion yuan ($180 billion) in ultra-long term bonds, up from 1 trillion yuan last year, the report said. Of that, 300 billion yuan would go toward a program launched last year that offers rebates to consumers who trade in automobiles or appliances for new ones, doubling central government support for the program.

Economists expressed doubts over whether the policies will do enough, noting that the government reduced its inflation target to 2% from 3% last year, and suggesting leaders have accepted that the economy is still mired in deflation, or a cycle of weakening prices.

The degree of support is “more modest than it may appear,” Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics said in a report. “We remain skeptical that it will be sufficient to prevent growth from slowing this year, especially given the headwinds on the external front and the lack of a more pronounced shift in government spending toward support for consumption.”

Chinese leader Xi Jinping also wants to wean the economy off its long-running dependence on the highly indebted real estate market.

He is directing economic resources into developing a more innovative, high-tech economy — and with growing restrictions on U.S. technology exports to China, one that isn’t beholden to other countries for the most powerful semiconductors and other electronic components.

Xi told delegates from Jiangsu province, one of China’s wealthier coastal provinces known for exports, on Wednesday that “technological innovation and industrial innovation are the basic paths to developing new quality productivity.”

He also referred to a meeting in February with the heads of China’s top private companies, and said the province should “treat all types of enterprises equally, and continuously optimize the business environment.”

The push towards developing a high-tech economy has been a long-term economic goal of the Communist Party, though it has enacted measures since September that suggest a shift in emphasis toward shoring up growth in the short term.

The new report highlighted artificial intelligence in a section on fostering “industries of the future,” saying the government would support the application of large-scale AI models, smart manufacturing equipment, connected vehicles and intelligent robots.