The last time the IIHF held the World Junior Championship in the Twin Cities, Bob Motzko could have played in it. He was 20 around this time of year as 1981 was turning to 1982, and the world’s best young hockey players were battling at rinks in the metro area, in Rochester and elsewhere around the state.

He’s 64 today, and in his third stint as head coach for Team USA, with the honor and the pressure of trying to win a third consecutive gold medal, this time on home ice with the tournament being played in St. Paul and Minneapolis.

In an exclusive interview with the Pioneer Press as his team was prepping for Monday night’s game with Slovakia, Motzko said the biggest change from 2018, when he coached the Americans to a bronze medal at the World Juniors held in Buffalo, N.Y., is the depth and talent among all 10 teams that have come to Minnesota to determine the next world champion.

“The depth of the teams in the tournament seems to be amazing,” Motzko said. “You saw Latvia and Canada in a tight game, and Latvia beat Canada last year. There are a lot of good hockey players in the world right now.”

A decade ago or so, World Juniors was considered to be a de facto five-team tournament, with the gold medal realistically up for grabs among the United States, Canada, Finland, Sweden and Russia. Since the start of their war with Ukraine, Russian teams have been banned from international competition, and while Canada and the U.S. have claimed the past six gold medals, other national teams are joining the fray.

After beating Switzerland 2-1 in their second game of the tournament, the Americans raved at how quickly the Swiss are ramping up their hockey development.

Motzko noted that the American men needed overtime to beat Switzerland 1-0 for gold at last spring’s IIHF World Championship, and Germany gave Team USA all it could handle in the World Juniors opener.

Motzko has joked in the past that the IIHF will need to erect a statue of Steve Miller at some point in honor of his life-long contributions to World Juniors. Miller, who is Motzko’s top assistant with the Gophers, has been an assistant for the Americans in nine of the past 10 tournaments, bringing home four gold medals, a silver and a bronze in that stretch.

“He’s an encyclopedia. He remembers everything in the tournament, moments in the tournament, things that are going to come up. He just has information that’s so valuable in so many situations,” Motzko said. “There’s a reason every coach keeps having him on their staff, and I don’t think anyone should ever stop unless he gets tired and wants a break to hang out with his family at Christmas. He’s got a skill set that really pays great dividends for me at Minnesota and everywhere he has been.”

For Motzko, Miller and the other coaches, their nine-day training camp in Duluth, and the early games of the tournament have been an exercise in building cohesiveness among two-dozen of the nation’s top players in their age group, many of whom are on-ice rivals before and after World Juniors.

Some of the in-game challenges in the Americans’ first two wins are attributed to the notion of all-star teams, and the work needed to bring them together to work toward a common goal.

“Most of these kids know each other and have played together from that standpoint of camaraderie and coming together,” Motzko said. “But you’ve got guys that a lot of them have played the same roles on their teams, and they can’t all play the same role when you put them all together. These are smart athletes. They understand the responsibility of the roles they’re going to take.”

Perhaps the biggest understanding comes from talented players trying to do too much early on, and once they settle into their roles, team success usually follows.

“You saw that from us from Game 1 to Game 2. We were so amped up in Game 1 with emotions. These are young kids and they try to overdo things,” Motzko said. “We use the analogy that Peyton Manning threw 28 interceptions in his rookie year. Well, he did OK as he got older. We need to think older. These guys all have played winning hockey. They know.”

Following the wins over Germany and Switzerland, Team USA led Group A heading into their Monday evening showdown with Slovakia. They play Sweden at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, with medal round play set to begin on Friday, Jan. 2.

Bob Motzko speaks to reporters after being introduced as head coach of the U.S. National Junior Team before an NHL hockey game between the Minnesota Wild and the Anaheim Ducks Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Matt Krohn)

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Firefighter Timothy Bertz was “all in, all the time.”

“You will hear those words when someone talks about Tim Bertz — that was his motto, and he was the embodiment of those words within his family, his friendships and the fire service and beyond,” said Harris Fire Chief Drew Chapeau on Monday at Bertz’s memorial service.

Bertz, 52, graduated from the St. Paul Fire Department academy on Dec. 17, worked at the training facility on Dec. 19, and had a sudden and major medical event at home on Saturday, Dec. 20, according to the fire department. He died at the hospital on Dec. 22.

He’d been a paid-on-call firefighter at the Harris Fire Department in Chisago County, Minn., for the past three years, and later became a duty crew member with the Lino Lakes Fire Department. It was his dream to become a St. Paul firefighter.

Bertz’s sister, Katie Karels, got to see her brother receive his St. Paul Fire Department badge at the graduation.

St. Paul Firefighter Timothy Bertz takes the firefighter oath during a graduation ceremony at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

“I’ve never seen Tim so happy, except when he married Andrea,” she said at her brother’s memorial service at Maranatha Church in Forest Lake.

Andrea and Tim Bertz would have celebrated their 24th wedding anniversary Tuesday. Sunday was 31 years since their first date, Andrea Bertz remembered Monday.

She said she supported him “wholeheartedly” in his fire career.

“I was glad that he wanted to help our community and our neighbors,” Andrea Bertz said. “I always felt that if you were the one having your worst days medically or with a fire in your home, you would want my husband showing up at your door. He would do everything in his power to save you. He was brave, smart and skilled.”

At the Lino Lakes department, Chief Dan L’Allier said Bertz’s shift started at 6 a.m., but that didn’t mean Bertz pulled into the parking lot at that time. It meant “trucks were checked, gear was ready to go, and he was prepared to respond the second the tones dropped.

“He believed deeply in the phrase, ‘All in, all the time,’ and he lived it quietly, consistently, professionally,” L’Allier said.

Bertz had joined the Navy to be a firefighter, but “the Navy saw other skills that led him down the road to become a (Navy) SEAL,” Andrea Bertz said.

“Tim carried his military discipline and life experience into the fire service and in the academy,” said St. Paul Fire Chief Butch Inks.

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“He mentored younger recruits, offered perspective when it mattered most, and modeled what it meant to be part of a team,” Inks said. “He earned respect through humility, preparation, and just good old-fashioned hard work and integrity.”

Bertz also was an organ donor.

“His legacy will continue, not only in memory, but in the lives of people he will never meet,” Inks said, adding that because of Bertz, he just renewed his driver’s license and opted to indicate on his license that he will be an organ donor.

Bertz was interred at Fort Snelling National Cemetery, and flags were flown at half-staff at state buildings Monday. His family prefers, in lieu of flowers, memorials to the St. Paul Fire Foundation.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal Homeland Security officials were conducting a fraud investigation on Monday in Minneapolis, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.

Noem posted a video on the social platform X showing DHS officers going into an unidentified business and questioning the person working behind the counter. Noem said that officers were “conducting a massive investigation on childcare and other rampant fraud.”

“The American people deserve answers on how their taxpayer money is being used and ARRESTS when abuse is found,” U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement posted.

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The action comes a day after FBI Director Kash Patel said on X that the agency had “surged personnel and investigative resources to Minnesota to dismantle large-scale fraud schemes exploiting federal programs.”

Patel said that previous fraud arrests in Minnesota were “just the tip of a very large iceberg.”

A federal prosecutor alleged earlier in December that half or more of the roughly $18 billion in federal funds that supported 14 programs in Minnesota since 2018 may have been stolen.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said then that fraud will not be tolerated and that his administration “will continue to work with federal partners to ensure fraud is stopped and fraudsters are caught.”

President Donald Trump has criticized Walz’s administration over the fraud cases that to date have resulted in dozens of people being charged with stealing $250 million in a pandemic-related fraud scheme to steal from federal programs.

A spokesperson for Walz did not immediately respond to an email Monday seeking comment.

In recent weeks, tensions have been high between state and federal enforcement in the area as the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown focused on the Somali community in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, which is the largest in the country.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A federal judge has dismissed a criminal case against a popular Los Angeles TikTok streamer, citing constitutional violations after his lawyers were denied access to him while he was in immigration detention.

U.S. District Judge Fernando Olguin issued a ruling Saturday dismissing an indictment against Carlitos Ricardo Parias, who is known for documenting police and immigration enforcement activity online. Parias’ rights were violated when federal authorities repeatedly failed to allow his criminal defense lawyers to visit or speak with him in immigration detention so he could prepare for trial this week, Olguin wrote, adding that the dismissal was with prejudice, which prevents the government from refiling the same charges against him again.

“In short, the government’s failure to coordinate the overlapping actions of its separate agencies while relentlessly pursuing Mr. Parias’s criminal proceedings created a situation from which constitutional violations could — and did — occur,” Olguin wrote.

FILE – In this photo provided by the office of Los Angeles City Councilmember Curren Price, Carlitos Ricardo Parias, left, receives a certificate of recognition from Jose Ugarte, chief of staff for Los Angeles City Councilmember Curren Price in Los Angeles, Aug. 2025. (Office of Los Angeles City Councilmember Curren Price via AP)

The U.S. Attorney’s office in Los Angeles said in a statement that the agency is evaluating its options for appeal. “We strongly disagree with the court’s version of the facts as well as its legal conclusions,” the statement said.

Parias was indicted last month and pleaded not guilty to charges of assault on a federal officer using a deadly or dangerous weapon and depredation of government property.

The charges stemmed from an October incident in which federal authorities said Parias rammed his vehicle into theirs while they tried to arrest him on an immigration warrant and shot him in the elbow. Parias was released on bond pending his trial and taken to an immigration detention facility in Adelanto, California, where he remained Monday, according to the government’s online database. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility is about 70 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles and run by The GEO Group.

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U.S. authorities say Parias is a Mexican citizen living in the country illegally. A message seeking comment was left for immigration attorney Carlos Jurado.

Parias is well-known in South Los Angeles for his Spanish-language videos posted on TikTok on two accounts with more than 340,000 combined followers. Videos on his page dating back to 2024 document police activity, car accidents and fires, as well as tortilla-making and rainy days in Los Angeles. This year, the footage has also focused on demonstrations against immigration enforcement and arrests by federal deportation authorities.

Parias is one of many social media users who post about immigration raids and arrests across Southern California, often relaying information in real time to alert community members. He was hospitalized initially after he was shot during his October arrest.