11 Nov 2023

Men’s hockey: Jimmy Clark’s two-goal night sparks Gophers’ come-from-behind win at Michigan

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Playing prep hockey for Edina, Jimmy Clark said he learned to love being on the team that everyone in the audience hated. Perhaps that experience served the Minnesota Gophers rookie well in his first trip to Yost Ice Arena — known as one of the most hostile places for visiting teams in all of college hockey.

Clark scored late in the second period and again in the third as the Gophers rallied from a two-goal deficit and beat Michigan 4-3 on Friday in one of their biggest road tests of the season.

The Gophers (5-3-1 overall, 1-2-0-0 Big Ten) got their first conference win thanks in large part to a 37-save performance from goalie Justen Close. Bryce Brodzinski got Minnesota on the board after it trailed less than two minutes into the game, and Brody Lamb netted the game-winner with 3:28 to play. Gophers coach Bob Motzko admitted that Close may have stolen the game for Minnesota, which was dominated by the Wolverines for long stretches of the game.

“Every once in a while it’s called ‘highway robbery’ and we got away with one tonight,” Motzko said in a postgame press conference. “We were doing fine until we took our penalties and that reared its head. They got the 3-1 lead and we were not good until Jimmy Clark gets a big goal. …That gave us a game again. Without that there was no game.”

Michigan fell to 5-5-1 overall and 1-3-1-0 in the conference despite getting goals from Frank Nazar, Rutger McGroarty and Dylan Duke. The Wolverines took a 3-1 lead into the final seconds of the middle period before Clark started Minnesota’s comeback.

“It’s huge to show the team we were in this game and we can beat these guys,” Clark said. “It might not have been our best night, but we can get it done and that’s what we did.”

All week, Motzko had warned his team about the danger of taking penalties versus the Wolverines, who have the nation’s most dangerous power play. And then, in the second period, the Gophers did just what the coach had warned them against. Duke and McGroarty scored man-advantage goals, and the Wolverines took a commanding lead at home.

Minnesota’s best chance to get back into the game in the second came when Michigan’s Mark Estapa was ejected for contact to the head on Gophers forward John Mittelstadt. But Michigan stood firm and killed the five-minute major penalty.

But Clark started the rally in the final seconds of the period, getting his second collegiate goal, then knotted it in the third, finishing off a rush to the net with Connor Kurth. Lamb’s game-winner gave him his first three-point game as a collegian. The Gophers closed it out despite a frantic Michigan push with goalie Jacob Barczewski on the bench.

“Our D core did a great job those last five minutes, good sticks, taking bodies and kept them off the score sheet,” Lamb said.

Barczewski finished with 23 saves for Michigan, which has now lost three in a row.

Extra pucks

The Gophers were without center Aaron Huglen, who was ill all week and did not make the trip to Michigan. It was the second year in a row that he has missed the road games versus the Wolverines due to illness.

With freshman goalie Nathan Airey still not at full health and unable to travel to Michigan, the Gophers have officially added sophomore Matt Bryant to the roster. Originally from La Crosse, Wis., Bryant skated for the U’s club team last year and was officially listed as their third goalie on Friday, behind Close and sophomore Zach Wiese.

John Mittelstadt, who wears No. 19, left the game in the second period after he was bloodied by the high hit from Estapa. The Gophers forward returned to the game in the third period wearing a No. 25 jersey with no nameplate on the back, as his regular jersey was bloodied in the collision.

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11 Nov 2023

Keg & Case food hall’s Clutch Brewing Company says it will cease operations

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St. Paul’s Clutch Brewing Company announced on social media that it is going out of business at the end of the year.

The brewer, which is one of the main tenants in the Keg & Case Market at the old Schmidt Brewery on West Seventh Street, said it’s had a wild five years in business and made the announcement with a “heavy heart.”

“So many good times were had and providing a one-of-a-kind, safe, accepting, warm place to enjoy a delicious, locally-made beer has been an absolute honor for us.”

The brewery noted that were many factors in the decision to close, but ultimately it was not “sustainable” to keep the brewery running.

“Also, we still have plenty of beer to be consumed! Stop by and help us go out the right way: with a craft beer in hand and good times shared with friends and family. Thank you all!”

Keg & Case opened to much fanfare in 2018, with Clutch Brewing as one of the anchor tenants of the food hall.

However, the 2020 coronavirus pandemic led to a prolonged closing that took a toll on many of the vendors that leased space in the reclaimed brewery warehouse, which was rated the nation’s “best new food hall” by USA Today in 2019. Among them were In Bloom and Woodfired Cantina, which closed in succession after occupying Keg & Case’s only sit-down restaurant space.

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11 Nov 2023

Ravens CB Marlon Humphrey, RB Keaton Mitchell questionable to play Sunday; Browns rule out 3 players

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The Ravens play the Browns for the second time this season Sunday, this time at M&T Bank Stadium, and Cleveland again comes into the critical AFC North showdown banged up.

Unlike the first meeting in Cleveland, the Browns (5-3) have starting quarterback Deshaun Watson. But they won’t have starting right tackle Dawand Jones (knee/shoulder) nor wide receivers Marquise Goodwin (concussion) and David Bell (knee), with all three ruled out on Friday’s injury report.

With Jones out and fellow offensive tackle Jedrick Wills Jr. being placed on injured reserve earlier this week, that means backup James Hudson III is set to start against a Ravens defense that leads the NFL in sacks. The Browns also listed starting cornerback Greg Newsome II (groin) and third-string running back Pierre Strong Jr. (hamstring) as questionable.

Wide receiver Amari Cooper (ankle), tight end David Njoku (knee) and defensive end Ogbo Okoronkwo (groin) all fully practiced Friday after being limited a day earlier.

Baltimore (7-2), on the other hand, remains healthy.

Cornerback Marlon Humphrey (hamstring), running back Keaton Mitchell (hamstring), right tackle Morgan Moses (shoulder) and cornerback Jalyn Armour-Davis (illness) are all listed as questionable. However, only Humphrey, who was not on the field when the team ended practice at its indoor facility in Owings Mills, was limited Friday.

Wide receivers Odell Beckham Jr. (knee) and Rashod Bateman (back), nose tackle Michael Pierce (illness) and safety Marcus Williams (hamstring) also practiced fully Friday and did not have an injury designation for the game.

Humphrey has been one of the NFL’s best corners since missing the first four games of the season after undergoing foot surgery in mid-August. Mitchell, an undrafted rookie, rushed for 138 yards on nine carries in his regular-season debut Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks after suffering a shoulder injury in the preseason.

Moses, whose streak of 134 consecutive starts ended in Week 5, missed Sunday’s win but has been a full participant in practice throughout the week. Patrick Mekari has been his replacement.

Williams has missed six games this season, including the past three, but Geno Stone has been a more-than-capable fill-in with a league-leading six interceptions alongside versatile safety Kyle Hamilton.

“We’ve [played] very tough teams [and] in very physical games, and I feel like our guys have handled it very well,” coach John Harbaugh said Friday. “We have to continue to do it, because we have this game against the Browns, which is a division game. It’s going to be a physical game. … Our job is to handle it better than our opponents do.”

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11 Nov 2023

Thousands who were sheltering at Gaza City’s hospitals flee as Israel-Hamas war closes in

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DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Thousands of Palestinians sheltering from the Israel-Hamas war at Gaza City’s main hospital fled south Friday after several reported strikes in and around the compound overnight. They joined a growing exodus of people escaping intense urban fighting in the north — including near other hospitals — as Gaza officials said the territory’s death toll surpassed 11,000.

The search for safety across the besieged Gaza Strip has grown desperate as Israel intensified its assault on the territory’s largest city.

The Israel army says Hamas’ military infrastructure is based amid Gaza City’s hospitals and neighborhoods, and that it has set up its main command center in and under the largest hospital, Shifa — claims the militant group and Shifa staff deny.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after its deadly Oct. 7 surprise incursion, which killed at least 1,200.

More than 100,000 Palestinians have fled south over the past two days, according to Israel, but they still face bombardment and dire conditions. Reported strikes on or near at least four hospitals in northern Gaza overnight underscored the danger for tens of thousands more who had crowded into the facilities, believing they would be safe.

Battles around hospitals

Early Friday, at least three strikes over several hours hit the courtyard and the obstetrics department of Shifa Hospital, according to Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesperson at the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

A video of the courtyard recorded the sound of incoming fire waking people in makeshift shelters, followed by shouts for an ambulance. In the blood-spattered courtyard, one man writhed, screaming on the ground, his leg apparently severed.

Al-Qidra blamed the attack on Israel, a claim that could not be independently verified. The Israeli army said one strike at Shifa was the result of a misfire by militants targeting its troops nearby.

For weeks, tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians — reaching as many 60,000 this week, according to the Health Ministry — have been sheltering in the Shifa complex.

The overnight strikes triggered a mass exodus of the displaced. About 10 a.m., large numbers packed up their belongings and began walking toward the south, five people who were among those who left told The Associated Press.

Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesperson for the Hamas-run Health Ministry, told the Qatar-based satellite news network Al-Jazeera that more than 30,000 displaced people, medical workers and patients remain in the hospital.

Mainly those who could not walk or did not know where to go remained, said Wafaa abu Hajajj, a journalist who arrived in the south after leaving the hospital Friday.

“The strikes were hoping to scare people and it worked. … It became too much,” said 32-year-old Haneen Abu Awda, who had been at Shifa being treated for wounds from an earlier strike on his house.

At the same time, Shifa has been overwhelmed by thousands of wounded, even as it operates with minimal power and medical supplies.

In video released Friday by the Gaza Health Ministry, bodies of limp children are seen on stretchers across blood-stained floors in the hospital, some dead, some barely breathing. Other patients were strewn around the floor, unable to be treated for lack of supplies. One man is seen gasping for air.

The director of Shifa, Mohammed Abu Selmia, said Israel demanded the facility be evacuated, but he said there was nowhere for such a large number of patients to go.

“Where are we going to evacuate them?” he said, speaking to Al Jazeera television.

The Health Ministry said one person had been killed at Shifa and several were wounded. Another strike near the Nasr Medical Center killed two people, according to the ministry. Abu Selmia said at least 25 people were killed when a strike hit a Gaza City school where people were sheltered inside.

The strike on Nasr forced the shutdown of its children’s hospital, the only remaining specialized pediatric care in north Gaza, said World Health Organization spokesperson Margaret Harris. She said it was not known what happened to patients there, including children receiving dialysis and on life support — “things that you cannot possibly evacuate them safely with.”

Military spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said Israel is “aware of the sensitivity” of hospitals and that forces were closing in on them slowly. Israel “does not fire on hospitals,” he said, but if militants are seen firing from them “we will do what we need to do” and kill them.

Israel has produced video that it says is evidence that Hamas uses not only hospitals, but schools and mosques as well, as cover for military activities.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said on multiple occasions that Hamas uses civilians as “human shields,’’ while stressing that this does not give Israel free rein to target buildings where militants are hiding among civilians. He has pointed to international humanitarian law, which states that protection of civilians and hospitals, schools, and homes is paramount.

Civilians flee south

Tens of thousands of new evacuees from the north, some from Shifa, flowed down Salah al-Din road — the central spine running the length of the Gaza Strip — and reached the central city of Deir al-Balah on Friday. With no fuel for vehicles, the crowds walked for hours as explosions echoed a short distance away. Among them were wounded and older people.

They arrived hungry, exhausted and with a stew of emotions: relief, rage, and despair.

Reem Asant, 50, described seeing bodies on the streets as he and others made their way out of Gaza City, trying to avoid shelling.

“We’re talking about children killed in a hospital,” shouted one man, Abu Yousef. “Hundreds of women killed every day. Houses collapsing on the heads of civilians. … Where are human rights? Where is the United Nations? Where is the United States? Where is the International Criminal Court? Where is the entire world?”

The Israeli military announced an expanded six-hour window Friday for civilians to escape northern Gaza along Salah al-Din, the route used since last weekend. It also announced the opening of a second route, along the coastal road, after an agreement announced by the White House a day earlier.

More than two-thirds of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have fled their homes since the war began. Israel estimates that more than 850,000 of the 1.1 million people in northern Gaza have left, according to military spokesman Jonathan Conricus.

Rising death tolls

More than 11,070 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and minors, have been killed since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths. Another 2,650 people have been reported missing.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that “far too many” Palestinians have died and suffered. While recent Israeli steps to try to minimize civilian harm are positive, he said, they are not enough.

Assistant Secretary of State Barbara Leaf told U.S. lawmakers this week that it was “very possible” the death toll was even higher than the Gaza Health Ministry’s tally.

At least 1,200 people have been killed in Israel, mainly in the initial Hamas attack, and 41 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the ground offensive began, Israeli officials say. The Foreign Ministry had previously estimated the civilian death toll at 1,400, and gave no reason Friday for the revision.

An Israeli official told The Associated Press that the number had been changed after a painstaking weekslong process to identify bodies, many of which were mutilated or burned in the Hamas rampage. The final death toll could still change, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity pending a formal announcement.

Nearly 240 people abducted by Hamas from Israel remain captive.

Palestinian militants have continued to fire rockets into Israel, and an attack on Tel Aviv wounded at least two people Friday, said Yossi Elkabetz, a paramedic with Israel’s rescue services. Hamas claimed credit.

About 250,000 Israelis have been forced to evacuate from communities near Gaza and along the northern border with Lebanon, where Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants have traded fire repeatedly.