After rallying back this week from a seemingly insurmountable deficit, the Wild managed to force overtime against the Chicago Blackhawks, where they eventually prevailed in a shootout.

The thrilling comeback further highlighted a recurring trend.

Though the Wild have established themselves as Stanley Cup contenders since acquiring superstar defenseman Quinn Hughes last month, they have been to overtime in nearly half the games he has been in uniform.

“There have been a lot of tight games the past couple of weeks,” veteran winger Marcus Foligno said. “I don’t know if it’s us not trying to finish the job. There have been times where we’ve had some good starts and we haven’t had goals to show for it. That’s helped a team maybe stick around, and it’s kind of bit us a little bit.”

That helps explain why the Wild (30-14-10, 70 points) only had 19 regulation wins heading into their matchup with the Calgary Flames on Thursday night at Grand Casino Arena.

That total paled in comparison to the other top teams in the Central Division, as the Colorado Avalanche (35-7-9, 79 points) had 32 regulation wins before playing the Montreal Canadiens, while the Dallas Stars (30-14-9, 69 points) had 26 regulation wins before playing the Vegas Golden Knights.

It was actually more in line with the bottom teams in the Central Division, as the Winnipeg Jets (21-24-7, 49 points) had 19 regulation wins before playing the Tampa Bay Lightning, while the St. Louis Blues (19-25-9, 47 points) had 18 regulation wins before playing the Florida Panthers.

There’s a reason the Wild don’t have more regulation wins under their belt. No team in the NHL has been to overtime more this season.

Obviously, the Wild deserve credit for finding a way to come out on top once they reach overtime; it’s the biggest reason they’ve been able to establish themselves among the top teams in the NHL.

“I wouldn’t read too much into that,” center Nico Sturm said. “I think it’s a little bit of an outlier.”

Or maybe the Wild are the outlier in their current form. Currently, they’re on pace for 29 regulation wins, which would be by far the lowest total for a Stanley Cup champion since COVID shortened a pair of campaigns during the pandemic.

— In 2021-22, the Stanley Cup champion Avalanche finished with 46 regulation wins.

— In 2022-23, the Stanley Cup champion Golden Knights had 38 regulation wins.

— In 2023-24, the Stanley Cup champion Panthers had 42 regulation wins.

— In 2024-25, the Stanley Cup championship Panthers had 37 regulation wins.

Though it’s not necessarily a prerequisite for hoisting the hardware, the Wild would represent something of a statistical anomaly if they went on to win the Stanley Cup this season without notching regulation wins with more regularity.

Asked last week about how much Wild have been to overtime, head coach John Hynes pushed back on the notion that his players are content getting there, saying, “We’re trying to win in 60 minutes.”

That seems like it would be a good idea.

Briefly

Though he was on the ice for morning skate before the Wild played the Flames, veteran defenseman Zach Bogosian wasn’t ready to return from a lower body injury and was set to miss his 11th straight game. He’s getting closer; he’s just not quite there.

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By MICHAEL R. BLOOD

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Scientists on a research vessel off the central California coast spotted a waved albatross, marking just the second recorded sighting of the bird north of Central America.

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The yellow-billed bird with black button eyes, which can have an 8-foot wingspan and spends much of its life airborne over the ocean, also came with a mystery: Researchers wonder how and why a species known to breed in the Galapagos Islands — roughly 3,000 miles away — ventured so far north.

To scientists, it’s a “vagrant” bird, one traveling far outside its typical range. It was spotted 23 miles off the coast of Point Piedras Blancas, roughly midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The adult bird “doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to get back south,” said marine ornithologist Tammy Russell, who was onboard the vessel and noted that the same bird apparently was spotted in October off the Northern California coast.

“I can’t even believe what I saw,” Russell wrote on Facebook. “I’m still in shock.”

Russell, a contract scientist with the Farallon Institute and a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, said it’s all but impossible to determine why the bird ended up so far from its home.

It could have been driven north by a storm. Some birds have a rambling spirit and just go farther than others.

“It likely didn’t breed last season because adults lay their egg in spring and the chicks leave the nests by January,” Russell said in an email. “Perhaps it went wandering on its year off and will soon return to the Galapagos to be reunited with its mate for the next season?”

“Who knows how long it will stay around or if it will ever return?” Russell added. “But that’s why these sightings are so special.”

The International Union for Conservation of Nature calls the bird — the largest in the Galapagos — critically endangered. According to the American Bird Conservancy, its range is restricted to the tropics. It nests on lava fields amid scattered boulders and sparse vegetation.

The lifespan of the birds can reach 45 years. They feed primarily on fish, squid and crustaceans.

Russell noted that if multiple birds were being seen in California, it could be a sign they were being driven northward by environmental factors. Previously, she has written about five species of Booby that are now common off California because of warming temperatures and marine heatwaves.

As for the lone albatross, “If this is a sign of this species moving north, we now have some baseline data when we first detected one,” Russell added.

By DYLAN LOVAN

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky family battling extreme cold temperatures on their farm over the weekend opened their home to a newborn calf that was struggling in the deep freeze.

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Hours later, the calf, fed and fluffed, took a spot on the couch with the Sorrell family’s two children. Their mom, Macey Sorrell, snapped some photos and later posted them to social media, and the cuteness did not go unnoticed.

The calf was born outdoors in single digit temperatures on Saturday. Macey Sorrell said her husband, Tanner, went outside to check on the pregnant mother and found the calf, suffering in the cold.

“She was just frozen. Her umbilical cord looked like a popsicle,” Macey Sorrell said Thursday from her home in Mount Sterling, Kentucky. “It was just frozen.”

After losing a calf last winter to frostbite, the family moved quickly to bring the baby inside to clean her off and warm her up.

In this photo provided by the family, Tanner Sorrell and his wife, Macey Sorrell, feed and clean a calf that was born on their farm during extreme temperatures in Mount Sterling, Ky., on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. (Courtesy Macey Sorrell via AP)

“When we brought her in, she had ice on her. The afterbirth was still on her, I had to wipe all that off,” Sorrell said. “I took out the blow dryer and warmed her up, and got her all fluffed out.”

Soon the calf was lying on the couch, cuddling with her young children.

“They crawled up next to her like it was just the most normal thing,” she said. Her 3-year-old son, Gregory, decided to name the calf Sally, a character from his favorite movie, “Cars.”

In this photo provided by Macey Sorrell, 3-year-old Gregory Sorrell lies with a newborn calf that was brought into the family’s home during extreme cold temperatures in Mount Sterling, Ky., on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. (Courtesy Macey Sorrell via AP)

The family keeps about three dozen cows on their land and are used to bringing farm animals indoors from time to time. Sally was reunited with her mother the next morning, and is doing well, Sorrell said.

Sorrell said she almost didn’t share the photos on social media, because it was nothing new to the family to bring an animal indoors when necessary. Several commented on the cuteness of the photos.

“It’s just part of what you do,” she said.

A former U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer from Minnetonka was sentenced Thursday to nearly six years in federal prison for uploading child pornography to the Kik app in 2022.

Anthony John Crowley (Courtesy of the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office)

Anthony John Crowley, 52, had pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Paul to one count of distribution of child pornography, admitting he used the messaging app to upload images of a minor less than 12 years old engaged in sexually explicit conduct in August 2022.

Judge Laura Provinzino gave Crowley the top of sentencing guideline range — 71 months — and 10 years of supervised release.

She said Crowley “had earned his position of trust” after a 23-year career in federal law enforcement. “You wore the badge, people trusted you,” she said. “You knew what you did was wrong.”

Crowley was charged and arrested in June. As part of a September plea agreement, the prosecution agreed to dismiss an indictment charging him with two counts of possessing child pornography.

Court documents said the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force tipped off the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in 2022 that someone was using Kik to upload images of child pornography. The account was linked to a phone number and email address belonging to Crowley, a customs and border officer.

Law enforcement obtained a search warrant for Crowley’s home and seized his electronic devices, which contained images of child pornography and “child erotica” stories, according to prosecutors.

“Anthony Crowley’s crimes against children are a disgrace,” former acting U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Joseph Thompson said after the guilty plea. “In the last few months, we have seen a rash of law enforcement officers, public officials, and others in positions of trust abusing children. I have zero tolerance for this betrayal.”

Other officers charged

Crowley was among three Minnesota law enforcement officers charged federally for alleged sex crimes in just over a month’s time.

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Four days before Crowley was charged, a special agent with Homeland Security, Timothy Ryan Gregg, 52, of Eagan, was charged with producing child sexual abuse material of a 17-year-old girl after authorities say images and videos of the two engaged in sexual activity were found on her cellphone on May 29. Gregg has pleaded guilty to the sole count of transportation of visual depictions of a minor engaging in sexual conduct. A sentencing date has not been scheduled.

A month earlier, Minnesota state trooper Jeremy Francis Plonski, 30, of Shakopee was charged with production of child pornography. He pleaded guilty to the charge Oct. 8, admitting to repeatedly sexually assaulting a toddler girl while recording the abuse and then sharing the videos with someone he met through the Telegram app. Under a plea agreement, Plonski faces between 23 and 28 years in prison at sentencing, which has not been scheduled.