They celebrate Christmas on Dec. 24 in Sweden, so when Jesper Wallstedt got a call from his home country the next day, it was not interrupting any holiday plans. And it turned out to be one of the best presents the Minnesota Wild goalie has gotten in his 23 years.

One of the bigger surprises announced on Friday for next month’s Winter Olympics was the inclusion of Wallstedt among the trio that will stop pucks for Team Sweden. Wild veteran goalie Filip Gustavsson and New Jersey Devils goalie Jacob Markstrom are the other two.

“I think I joked with my dad maybe two or three years ago, ‘Is it weird to have Olympics as a goal in a few years?’,” Wallstedt recalled following the team’s morning skate in Anaheim on Friday. “I remember after my first year in the AHL thinking that maybe I’d try to make a push for this.”

Ottawa goalie Linus Ullmark, who was predicted by many to make the roster, will instead get a three-week break in February.

“I told my girlfriend that we were going to try to book (flights) to go to Hawaii or something,” Wallstedt said, with a smile. “Obviously, that’s not happening now.”

Wallstedt, 23, has made his case on the ice this season, forcefully. His numbers are superlative, including a 11-2-3 mark as the Wild’s goalie of record, the top save percentage (.928) in the NHL and the league lead in shutouts with four. And he is playing the position with a mixture of calm and boldness that has him in the conversation for the NHL’s rookie of the year.

This comes following a 2024-25 season which he admits was one to forget. He started the year with the Wild, briefly, as part of a three-goalie rotation. Then, he was sent down to Iowa where he struggled, both on the ice and psychologically.

His play in November and December is a big part of the reason the Wild have rebounded from a rough start to be one of the top three teams in the NHL at the halfway point of the schedule.

“Obviously, we’re in a good spot, but we’re not happy. We’re not satisfied yet,” Wallstedt said after the team’s shootout loss in San Jose to close out 2025. “There’s still work to be done. And we could always improve, we could always get better. But I like the spot where we’re in. But with that, we could always get better.”

While the Wild will have four players on Team Sweden next month, some were disappointed that it was not five. Marcus Johansson has been an offensive force in Minnesota this season at age 35, with a dozen goals at the halfway point. Despite those efforts, he was not named to his second Swedish Olympic team, having represented his country at the 2014 games in Sochi, Russia.

Johansson learned of the snub not long before the Wild played in Vegas on Dec. 29, then scored just seconds into the game for Minnesota.

“Very disappointed. It’s obviously something you work hard for and dream about,” Johansson said on Friday. “It’s tough to swallow.”

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A second St. Paul man was sentenced to prison this week in connection with the November 2024 murder of a 24-year-old man who authorities said was shot dead after being followed and “hunted.”

Dejaun Hemphill, 24, was with two cousins when he was shot near University Avenue and Rice Street on Nov. 5, 2024. Authorities said he and his cousins were being followed by two men, but were unaware they were being “hunted.”

Kenneth E. Terry, 19, was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in prison as part of a plea agreement that also ordered him to submit a DNA sample. He pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting second-degree murder.

Jehovah M. Nelson, 20, was sentenced earlier in December to more than 12 years in prison under the terms of his plea agreement. He pleaded guilty to second degree murder without intent.

A woman who was previously in a relationship with Terry reported that she had been hanging out with one of Hemphill’s cousins’ younger brothers, which was making Terry jealous. She said Terry had been bragging about Hemphill’s murder on social media, according to a criminal complaint. Hemphill died at the hospital on Nov. 15.

Kenneth E. Terry, left, and Jehovah M. Nelson (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Surveillance video showed the shooter was wearing a white mask like the killer character Michael Myers wears in the “Halloween” movies. A similar mask was later found in a vehicle associated with the two men, the complaint said.

The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office originally charged Nelson with second-degree murder and Terry with aiding and abetting second-degree murder. Both were 18 at the time of the shooting.

Nelson was also charged with two counts of attempted murder of Hemphill’s cousins who were with him; those charges were dismissed as part of his plea agreement. Terry’s additional charges of second-degree attempted murder also were dismissed as part of his plea agreement.

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The Gophers football team’s first addition of the 2026 transfer portal class is to-be redshirt sophomore quarterback Michael Merdinger, according to On3.com.

With redshirt sophomore Drake Lindsey the clear QB1 for Minnesota next fall, Merdinger will come in and compete for the backup spot with last year’s No. 2 Max Shikenjanski.

The 6-foot-2, 210-pound signal caller spent one season at North Carolina in 2024 and one year at Liberty in 2025. He was born in Tel Aviv, Israel and was a three-star recruit out of Cardinal Gibbon High School in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

The U offered him a scholarship during the 2024 recruiting cycle, but he went to the Tar Heels, where he completed 9 of 12 passes for 86 yards and one interception against Connecticut in the Fenway Bowl. He didn’t appear in another game as a true freshman.

For Liberty last year, Merdinger completed 21 of 41 passes for 350 yards, one touchdown and zero interceptions across five games.

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First-year Gophers men’s basketball coach Niko Medved and his team are embarking on a grueling stretch of 18 consecutive Big Ten games to finish the regular season.

He’s trying not to think of the full obstacle ahead.

“If I looked at it as 18 straight Big Ten games, I don’t think I would sleep at night,” the former Colorado State head coach told reporters on a video call Friday. “Not even with the cliche, but (I) try to take it one day at a time and try to get better and focus on the next challenge.”

The first test for the Gophers (8-5, 1-1 Big Ten) is Northwestern (8-5, 0-2) at 4 p.m. Saturday at Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston, Ill.

Minnesota knocked off then-No. 22 Indiana in its Big Ten opener on Dec. 3 and is 8-0 at Williams Arena. But the Gophers are 0-5 away from home this season, including a blowout loss at now-No. 5 Purdue.

After the Wildcats, Minnesota — which was picked to finish 16th in the 18-team league — will have three straight home games at The Barn: No. 25 Iowa on Tuesday, No. 24 Southern Cal next Friday and Wisconsin on Jan. 13.

Another year for Vaihola?

The Gophers will attempt to obtain a medical redshirt for fifth-year senior center Robert Vaihola, who has elected to have season-ending knee surgery after playing only five games into mid-November.

“I told Rob the other day, the whole thing is frustrating,” Medved said. “I really had high hopes for him. I thought he could really have a great season in the things he brings to the table. He is an elite rebounder, a Big Ten-level rebounder, and defensive player and physical guy.”

The 6-foot-8 transfer from San Jose State was leading the U with 7.6 rebounds per game before he aggravated his knee injury in the 66-54 win over Chicago State on Nov. 18.

“This stuff has been bothering him all year,” Medved said. “It just got to the point where he did not feel like he could come back and do it.”

Medved said Vaihola would “easily” qualify for a waiver for a sixth season of eligibility in 2026-27. That same status can be applied to starting point guard Chansey Willis Jr., who played in only seven games before his season ended with a broken foot in late November.

Who guards Martinelli?

Northwestern forward Nick Martinelli leads the Big Ten at 22.8 points per game and will create matchup problems for the Gophers.

The U will throw multiple defenders at the three-level scorer, including Jaylen Crocker-Johnson, Langston Reynolds and Cade Tyson, Medved said.

“You obviously have a guy that is in charge of the matchup, but so much of it is team defense,” Medved said. “It’s how do you bring help to him in certain situations, shrink the floor, bring an extra defender at times, help bump a screen.”

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