More than a decade ago, Logan Hensler dared to dream on the backyard rink in Woodbury.

Those dreams are about to become reality for the 18-year-old defenseman, who is expected to hear his name called in the first round of the 2025 NHL Draft. A smooth skater blessed with a 6-foot-2, 200-pound frame, Hensler finished as the No. 12 ranked North American skater, according to NHL Central Scouting.

As he reflected on his journey to this point, Hensler highlighted the importance of having his dad Joe, mom Alicia, and younger brothers Dylan and Dain in the stands with him on Friday night at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime moment,” Hensler said. “I’m really excited to get to share it with the family.”

There were some brief discussions between parents Joe and Alicia a couple of months ago about how much it was going to cost for the family to attend the 2025 NHL Draft. Were they going to be able to make it work?

“Just trying to figure out what we could and couldn’t do,” Joe Hensler said. “We were talking about it in the kitchen and our youngest actually spoke up almost declaring that he was going to be there no matter what.”

Leave it to the preteen to be the voice of reason.

“We were like, ‘Well, I guess the decision has been made, right?’ ” Joe Hensler said with a laugh. “We knew we had to make it happen so we could be together for it.”

This has been a long time coming for the family. It was pretty clear from a young age that Hensler was going to excel in the sport. He refined his skills on the backyard rink, developed into a standout as a peewee and bantam in the local youth association, and parlayed that into a roster spot with the highly touted Minnesota Blades.

“He started to get recognized outside of the neighborhood,” his father said. “We would have people come talk to us about opportunities down the road, and they had a little bit broader view than what we had at the time.”

The ascension continued for Hensler after he helped Hill-Murray take third place in the state tournament as a freshman. His natural ability piqued the interest of the USA Hockey National Team Development Program in Plymouth, Mich.

That left the family with a decision, and they enlisted the help of Hill-Murray boys hockey coach Bill Lechner, who has been around long enough to know whether a kid is ready to compete at that level. There was no question when it came to Hensler.

“You could tell right away with him,” Lecher said. “We’ve had these conversations with a lot of families. We weren’t going to lie to them. Even if we wanted him to stay for our sake, we knew he was ready to go.”

The thought of moving away from home gave Hensler some pause.

“It was really challenging,” he said. “I took until the last minute to sign the contract that they gave me.”

The experience with the NTDP gave Hensler the tools needed too succeed by putting him in situations to fail. He had to learn how to handle adversity in real time. That was exemplified by a stretch of play during Hensler’s first year, when he started to internalize some of his mistakes on the ice.

“It was starting to pile up on him a little bit and he took it all on himself,” NTDP coach Nick Fohr said. “I remember having him in my office and going through the clips. He started to realize it wasn’t all on him, and he started to let go of the mistakes. It seemed like it almost freed him up mentally, and everything started to go in the right direction for him.”

The growth was on full display during Hensler’s second year with the NTDP as he slowly separated himself from some of his peers.

“I’m really thankful for that experience,” he said. “It was probably the best decision I’ve made so far in my career.”

That put Hensler in position to hit the ground running when he got to the University of Wisconsin, and while he had to navigate ups and downs as a freshman, he impressed Badgers men’s hockey coach Mike Hastings with his maturity.

“The best part about him is he’s got an unbelievable balance of humility and confidence,” Hastings said. “I was really proud of him looking at where he started and where he finished, because it says a lot about him not taking anything for granted.”

What was the biggest lesson Hensler is going to take away from his first year in college?

“The physical side of it,” he said. “Just using my size and strength to my advantage is important. That was the biggest learning curve I had going to college. It’ll be huge to keep building on that while I continue to elevate my game.”

As excited as he is to have Hensler back on campus this year, Hastings is eager to see where he ends up this weekend.

“I believe anybody that invests in Logan Hensler is going to be glad that they did,” Hastings said. “He’s a great young man and a special player.”

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By MELISSA GOLDIN

As the number of Palestinians killed in the Israel-Hamas war continues to rise, social media users are falsely claiming that a Harvard University study has determined that hundreds of thousands in the Gaza Strip are also missing.

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“Israel has ‘disappeared’ nearly 400,000 Palestinians in Gaza since 2023,” reads one X post that had been shared and liked more than 35,700 times as of Thursday. “Harvard has now confirmed what we’ve been screaming into a deaf world: This is a holocaust — and it’s still happening.”

But Harvard did not publish the report in question. Moreover, these claims misrepresent data from the report that was intended to address an entirely unrelated topic.

Here’s a closer look at the facts.

CLAIM: A Harvard University study found that nearly 400,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are missing as a result of the Israel-Hamas war.

THE FACTS: Harvard published no such study. This estimate misrepresents a map included in a report by a professor at Israel’s Ben Gurion University that shows the distance between new aid distribution compounds in Gaza and three main populations centers. Using spatial analysis, the report determined that these compounds are inadequate and also does not address how many people in Gaza are missing. It was published on the Harvard Dataverse, a repository managed by the university where researchers can share their work. Contributors do not need to be affiliated with Harvard and publish directly to the repository without approval from the university.

“If anyone had asked me about these numbers I would have set things straight right away,” said the Yaakov Garb, a professor of environmental studies who authored the report. “Instead the number was circulated and recirculated by people who had not read the report or stopped to think about it for a moment.”

The inaccurate estimate comes from a post on the blogging site Medium. In the post, the author uses a map from Garb’s report showing how many people live in what are currently Gaza’s three main population centers — Gaza City, central refugee camps and the Muwasi area — according to estimates from the Israeli Defense Forces, to determine how many Palestinians are allegedly unaccounted for. The author subtracts the former number — 1.85 million — from the population in Gaza before the Israel-Hamas war began — 2.227 million — for a total of 377,00 missing people.

But the numbers on the map are not comprehensive.

“These IDF numbers were not intended to sum to 100% of the Gaza population,” Garb said. “There may be Gazans in other locations outside these areas of concentration.”

Many Palestinians also have left Gaza since the war began in October 2023, a fact the Medium post does not take into account. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics said in January that about 100,000 had left.

According to Garb, the map was meant to show how difficult it would be for people in these areas to reach new aid distribution compounds. He also noted that it had a typo, which he intends to fix. There are approximately 700,000 people in the Muwasi area, not 500,000.

The author of the Medium post did not respond to a request for comment.

Other estimates have put the number of missing people, typically defined as those who are dead under the rubble of Gaza, much lower than what the Medium post alleges. A June 2024 study published in The Lancet, for example, found that between about 15,000 to 38,000 people could have been missing at that time.

“Clearly time has passed, and more have died and been buried under rubble. But it is unlikely that numbers of people buried under rubble could increase to 400,000 since then,” said Shelly Culbertson, a senior policy researcher at RAND who studies disaster and post-conflict recovery. She added that even if missing people included those who had completely lost communication with their families, it is unlikely that the number would reach 400,000.

Garb lamented the negative impact this type of misinformation could have for Palestinians and those trying to help them.

“If somebody like me who’s doing serious work thinks twice next time about, oh my god, do I even want to put out something about Gaza if I have to sully myself with this stuff, they’ve done a disservice — done a disservice to the Palestinian cause, which they are ostensibly trying to further. I mean, they need to realize that,” he said.

Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.

A St. Paul Park man is being awarded a Carnegie Medal for saving a man from a burning vehicle last year in St. Paul.

The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission announced Thursday that Michael E. Coy is among 17 people who will receive North America’s highest civilian honor for heroism.

The rescue received international attention after cameras on the car of one of the good Samaritans captured the dramatic events along Interstate 94 near Snelling Avenue. The Minnesota State Patrol presented six people — Coy, Tesfaye Deyasso, Lacie Kramer, Tessa Sand, Kadir Tolla and Dave Klepaida — with its Meritorious Citizenship Award for the rescue.

The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission selected Coy for its honor because they determined he “was the only one who entered the car from the passenger door, taking on significantly more risk than the others outside the car,” according to Jewels Phraner, director of outreach and communications.

On April 18, 2024, Sam Orbovich, then 71 and a retired attorney, swerved to avoid hitting another vehicle, causing him to strike a lamppost and guide rail. The vehicle started on fire.

Coy, a 52-year-old delivery driver at the time, witnessed the crash.

“He immediately went to the scene, pulling on the handles of both doors on the driver’s side before he realized they were blocked by the guide rail,” said a description from the Hero Fund Commission. “Coy ran around the vehicle as flames from beneath and beside the vehicle licked at his feet and lower legs. He opened the front, passenger door and kneeled on the seat but the flames caused him to move to prevent being burned.

“Coy helped Orbovich remove his seat belt, then helped him position himself to sit on the console with his feet against the driver’s door,” the description continued. “He intended to drag Orbovich backwards out the door as other bystanders tried in vain to open the driver’s door or break the window.

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“Flames soon entered the passenger compartment through the door opening and the dashboard, vents, and floorboards. Blistering heat forced Coy out through the passenger door as flames soon fully engulfed the passenger compartment and blocked Coy from re-entering.”

A Minnesota Department of Transportation “highway helper” used a window-punch tool to break windows. Orbovich pushed his legs through the opening and Coy and others pulled him out. They carried him to the highway.

Orbovich was taken to the hospital for his injuries, as was Coy for treatment of smoke inhalation and minor burns to his face, arms and legs. Both men recovered.

When Darius Randell made his Minnesota United first-team debut in the U.S. Open Cup in May, text messages lined up on Loons academy coach Justin Ferguson’s phone.

The theme: He did it!

At age 17, Randell became the youngest player in club history to score a goal for the top team, and the 1-0 win over Louisville City propelled the Loons in the national tournament. Then more milestones stacked up.

By the end of the May, Randell had signed a homegrown contract with the Loons through 2026, made his MLS debut in the 4-2 loss to San Diego at Allianz Field on June 14, and on Wednesday, took the field for a second cameo in a 3-1 win over Houston in St. Paul.

“It’s crazy how things work out,” Randell told the Pioneer Press.

For MNUFC, this is a big deal. The Loons have totaled only four homegrown players across nine MLS seasons.

Goalkeeper Fred Emmings was the first in 2020, but the 21-year-old St. Paul native hung up his gloves last year after suffering concussions. Forward Patrick Weah came next in 2021, but MNUFC declined his contract option last fall and the 21-year-old from Minneapolis has played in nine games for Atlanta United II in MLS Next Pro league. Defender Devin Padelford signed in 2022, but the 22-year-old from Maplewood has made only three MLS appearances for the Loons this season.

MNUFC’s academy suffered from its decision to shut down operations during the pandemic, resulting in an exodus of top players to other MLS systems. After a reboot, the club’s leadership feels as though its high-school age teams have been improving. Still, MNUFC needs to increase its number of homegrown players to provide a return on the investment in the academy and development team MNUFC2.

In addition, as a medium-sized market with perennially low spending on first-team player salaries, developing its own talent lessen would mean the Loons are less reliant on the draft and intraleague trades, and can save money on international transfer fees.

None of that, however, has affected Loons head coach Eric Ramsay’s decision to play Randell.

“It won’t be token-gesture minutes, nor minutes from the perspective of publicity around young players,” Ramsay said before Randell’s MLS debut two weeks ago.. “He can definitely go and make a mark.”

Randall has totaled only nine MLS minutes, so most of his ability at that level has only been on display in training sessions.

“I think probably the biggest compliment I can pay him is, if you were to ask most of the more-senior players which player they wouldn’t want to be one-v-one against in a big 20-by-20 space, it would be Darius,” Ramsay said. “I think that level of aggression with the ball, his athleticism, his change of pace (is) a really good starting point for a young player.”

Academy coach Ferguson had a similar first impression of Randell. Before joining MNUFC in 2021, Ferguson was a youth coach at Salvo in Woodbury when they played a Boreal team featuring a 14-year-old Randell.

“The ball went backwards off a kickoff,” Ferguson recalled. “Some kid picked up the ball, dribbled pretty much my whole team and scored. … (My) immediate reaction is kind of, ‘Who is that?’ ”

Freguson was then hired by MNUFC and worked to bring Randell and other Boreal standouts over to the Loons. Randell, who was born in Monrovia, Liberia, and moved to Brooklyn Park at age 11, initially joined the Loons’ Under-15 team in 2022. One of his earliest highlights came at the Generation Adidas Cup.

“He turned two Manchester United players inside out at the halfway line and played a ball in behind, and we ended up tying the game and winning on penalties,” Ferguson said.

The following year, Randell joined Ferguson’s U17s. The head coach challenged the young star.

Randell boiled the message from Ferguson down this way: “On U-15s, you could do whatever you want, you get the ball, just dribble through everybody and do whatever you want. But (on U-17s) I don’t think you’ll be the best player.”

“And that kind of hit me up: ‘OK. Let’s see about that,’ ” Randell added. “I didn’t take that as a bad thing. I do understand what he’s trying to say. Like, things is not gonna be easy, so I’ve got to keep working my way.”

As he continued to climb, Randell hit some growing pains with MNUFC2, including his first training session where new teammates were running and passing circles around him. Last year, Ferguson said Randell was deflecting to older, more-experienced teammates too much and needed to be more assertive.

Before his game-winning goal in the Open Cup, Randell wasn’t doing well in school and was told if he didn’t improve in the classroom, he wasn’t going to play. He did what was asked of him and after playing, he texted Anne Moelk, the club’s head of player well-being, to thank her for making him go to his tutoring lessons.

“It shows his character, but it also shows the support that he appreciates he’s getting,” Ferguson said.

While Randell has made it to the MLS team, he’s still a teenager living at home with his mother in St. Michael. He has a ton to still figure out and a lot riding on his shoulders.

“He’s not a finished product yet,” said Ferguson, now MNUFC’s head of methodology. “I think people expect these 17-year-olds to be kind of Lamine Yamal (the teen sensation for Barcelona and Spanish national teams) who just come on to the world, and they already have it. That’s really not the journey for the majority. (Randell is) going to come on and he’s going to continue to improve and grow into, hopefully, who he can become.”