The St. Thomas Ice Arena’s frozen surface features six blue goal creases, four of them on the sides for practice use. The only two that matter, of course, are at either end and St. Thomas Academy’s Owen Ryan tended them to near perfection Tuesday night during a 3-1 defeat of Edina.

Undated courtesy photo, circle January, 2026, of St. Thomas Academy freshman goalie Owen Ryan. (Courtesy of St. Thomas Academy)

Ryan, a 6-foot-1, 170-pound freshman from White Bear Lake, stopped 22 shots, including a dozen during the third period, justifying coach Mark Strobel’s faith in returning him to the net after starts against Edina and equally powerful Moorhead earlier this month resulted in a loss and a tie.

“He wasn’t his sharpest mentally and it translated to how he moved in the net,” said Strobel, whose team was  2-3-2 over its last seven games entering Tuesday’s contest. “Tonight, he bounced back and had a coming-out party under pressure. He grew the last couple of games, and this will build confidence.”

Said Ryan: “It’s good to know the coach believes in you. I had a few butterflies before the game, but I did some breathing exercises to keep my mind calm.”

St. Thomas, ranked fourth in the latest Let’s Play Hockey state coaches poll, used goals by Oliver Marvin, Cole Braunshausen and Maverick McKinnon to overcome a lackluster first period against the third-ranked Hornets. Edina sniper Tucker Johnson produced his team’s lone goal.

Hornets goaltender Chase Bjorgaard, last seen producing a state-record six touchdowns during the Class 6A football championship game in late November, was outstanding in stopping 20 shots.

Edina took 10 of the first period’s 15 shots on goal, but it was the hosts who cranked off six of the first seven in that category to open the second stanza. Marvin, one of the Cadets’ five Edina residents, opened the scoring when he finished a 2-on-1 break with Bennett Knutson into the net’s left side.

“We were standing and watching,” said Edina coach Curt Giles, who’s guided the Hornets to five state titles and, like STA, to last season’s state tournament. “Against a good team, if you do that and they start moving their feet, they get on a roll and get momentum.”

St. Thomas outshot Edina11-2 during the second period and Stobel wasn’t afraid to acknowledge that he provided some loud “motivation” for his troops during the first intermission.

“You’re either going to do what we need or you’re not going to play,” said the coach, who feared his team’s early struggles during its first clash with Edina (11-5) were repeating themselves.

“What’s in their psyche before they come to the rink?” he asked. “It needs to change or I’m going to have a heart attack. We have to make sure we’re the hunters and not the hunted for the first 17 minutes.”

Edina’s Miller Wenkus was penalized for hooking five minutes into the second period and STA went up, 2-0, with the man advantage. Braunshausen, unguarded on the left side of the slot, popped a McKinnon feed into the net’s vacant left side.

“Anden Roy picked a puck off the (right) half wall and get it to Mav in the middle,” Braunshausen said. “It’s tough to miss that one after two great plays. Those guys definitely did the heavy lifting on that one.”

Edina created late tension after Johnson, who entered with seven goals and 28 assists, fired in a slap shot from center point on a power play and past a screened Ryan. McKinnon scored into an empty net with a minute remaining.

St. Thomas (10-4-2) graduated 10 seniors from last season’s team, many with deep varsity resumes. This season’s eight seniors include four who played junior varsity as juniors but developed enough at that level to be promoted. Marvin is part of that quartet.

“It’s taken them a little longer to develop the speed and quickness and brain power for the things we do from a strategy standpoint,” said Strobel, noting that he kept 42 of the 90 players who tried out before the season.

Ryan’s play has helped buy time for that development to occur. Inspired to don the pads after watching former Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk, another tall and slender goaltender, he’s shared his crease with junior Jacksyn Crary, but is staking a strong claim to being the Cadets’ big-game starter.

“He’s so young and talented and for him to keep his head under pressure like tonight in front of a full barn is pretty remarkable,” Braunshausen said. “He’s got a lot of weight on his shoulders but we expect that from him now. I’d put him up against anybody in the state.”

Can STA make another state-tournament run and give Ryan a chance to occupy the blue paint Dubnyk once defended?

“I think so, but I’ll have a better idea a month from now,” Strobel said. “We’ll see where our minds are heading into the playoffs. You have to get lucky but it’s hard work and buying into your team’s system in your own end. Because not a lot of high school kids want to play defense.”

With Ryan in the crease, it’s unlikely the Cadets will need much convincing.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday revived a Republican challenge to a law that allows the counting of late-arriving mail ballots, a target of President Donald Trump.

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The high court ruled 7-2 that Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill. has the legal right to challenge the law, even though the ballots likely had little effect on a race he won handily.

The state had argued that allowing the lawsuit would open the floodgates for more election litigation and “cause chaos” for election officials. Bost said vote-total considerations shouldn’t affect his ability to come to court.

The Illinois law allows ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted if they are received up to two weeks later. More than a dozen states, as well as the District of Columbia, accept mailed ballots received after Election Day as long they are postmarked on or before that date, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The Supreme Court will also consider the broader issue of whether states can continue to count late-arriving mail ballots in the spring.

The Trump administration weighed in to support Bost. The Republican president has asserted that late-arriving ballots and drawn-out electoral counts undermine confidence in elections.

An Apple Valley man has been spared prison time for shooting a man during an argument at a mobile home park in Mounds View last year.

Alex Robert Quevedo-Holmes, 21, was sentenced Monday in Ramsey County District Court to nearly a year in the workhouse and four years of probation for the daytime shooting of a 22-year-old, who was struck in the thigh in the 2100 block of Buckingham Lane on March 13, 2025.

Alex Robert Quevedo-Holmes (Courtesy of Mounds View Police Department)

Quevedo-Holmes had pleaded guilty to second-degree assault and Quevedo-Holmes’ attorney asked Judge Thomas Gilligan Jr. for a downward departure from state sentencing guidelines, arguing the victim was the primary aggressor before and during the incident. The judge granted the departure request, which was objected to by the prosecution, and stayed a three-year prison term for four years.

According to the criminal complaint, a woman told police the man who was shot is her former boyfriend and that she has a child with him. She said she met Quevedo-Holmes at a bar a week earlier and that he spent the night at her residence.

The man texted her that he was going to beat up Quevedo-Holmes and then arrived just before noon. The two men argued outside, the woman got between them to break it up and told her ex to leave. He approached Quevedo-Holmes, who shot him.

The man was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center with severe blood loss.

Quevedo-Holmes ran from the scene, leading to a search by several law enforcement agencies, a SWAT response and “a shelter in place” issued. He was arrested without incident in South St. Paul the next day.

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By PAUL WISEMAN, Associated Press Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. wholesale prices rose modestly in November, the government said in report delayed by the federal government shutdown.

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The Labor Department reported Wednesday that its producer price index — which measures inflation before it reaches consumers — rose 0.2% in November from October and 3% from a year earlier.

The numbers are old. They were supposed to come out Dec. 11, but the report was delayed by last fall’s 43-day government shutdown. The Labor Department will put out December’s producer price index on Jan. 30; it was originally scheduled to come out Wednesday.

Gasoline prices rose sharply in November. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core wholesale prices were unchanged from October and up 3% from November 2024.

President Donald Trump’s sweeping taxes on imports were expected to drive inflation sharply higher, but their impact so far has been more modest than expected.

The Labor Department reported Tuesday that consumer price inflation cooled last month, rising a modest 0.3% from November and 2.7% from December 2024. But it remains above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.