Today is
Wednesday April 24, 2024
ByKRISTEN SHILTON
BOSTON — On the heels of a 3-2 loss, coach Jim Montgomery stood behind his choice to start Linus Ullmark over Jeremy Swayman in Game 2 of the Boston Bruins’ first-round Stanley Cup playoff series against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday night.
Ullmark, who finished with 30 stops, got the call in net even after Swayman was dominant making 35 saves for Boston in a 5-1 victory over the Leafs in Saturday’s Game 1.
“No second guesses,” Montgomery said. “He was terrific. Made multiple big-time saves.”
Montgomery had flat-out refused to name a starter leading up to Monday’s game while being peppered with questions about whether he’d keep the Bruins’ established rotation alive. Boston had strictly alternated between Swayman and Ullmark since February; Monday was the 28th straight game they’d employed the same tactic.
It just wasn’t something Montgomery was willing to comment on publicly, and the guessing game continued right until warmups of Game 2.
“I don’t know why we would divulge information,” Montgomery said earlier Monday. “If you’re preparing for a game, there are parts of a goaltender that are part of your pre-scout. So that’s an advantage for us, right? If [they] don’t know who’s starting.”
In the end, it was hard for Montgomery to go wrong. Ullmark is the NHL’s reigning Vezina Trophy winner, and both he and Swayman had strong stats in the regular season. Swayman was 25-10-8 with a .916 SV% and 2.53 GAA, while Ullmark was 22-10-7 with 2.57 GAA.
Swayman had been an obvious choice to tap in Game 1 given his 3-0-0 record against Toronto in the regular season. Ullmark was equally excellent in Game 2 and gave Boston every chance to take a commanding 2-0 lead over Toronto in the series.
The Bruins were in control early, taking a 2-1 over the Leafs after the first period with goals from Morgan Geekie and David Pastrnak. Boston would go down a defenseman in the second when Andrew Peeke exited, leaving the Bruins with a five-man rotation on the back end. Montgomery had no update on Peeke following the loss.
Toronto then tied the game with a power play goal from John Tavares in the middle frame to make it 2-2 heading into the third. The Leafs turned up the pressure there while Boston looked increasingly flat-footed, and Ullmark had to execute two exceptional glove saves — one in particular against Nick Robertson — to keep the score knotted.
It took Auston Matthews, the NHL’s Rocket Richard Trophy winner with 69 goals in the regular season, slipping behind Bruins’ defenseman Charlie McAvoy to finally beat Ullmark with a breakaway strike to give the Leafs a 3-2 advantage late in the third. It was the first time Toronto had led Boston in their past five meetings.
“There’s a reason he scored 69,” Ullmark said of Matthews’ winner. “[I’ll] try to get him next time.”
When that next opportunity comes for Ullmark, only Montgomery knows for sure. The series turns now to Toronto with Game 3 set for Wednesday. Montgomery’s focus isn’t immediately on who will be in the crease, but on improving how the Bruins play in front of whoever earns the next start.
“We’re not playing fast enough,” Montgomery said. “We’re slow in transition, which is not allowing us to possess pucks and not allowing us to get in on the forecheck well enough. I didn’t think our urgency was where it needed to be to prevail tonight.”
Maple Leafs forward William Nylander missed Game 2 with an undisclosed injury and has yet to appear in the series. While Toronto hasn’t revealed what Nylander is dealing with, it’s reported to have flared up for the winger sometime after the regular-season finale last Wednesday.
With the series tied 1-1, Game 3 is Wednesday in Toronto.
ByGREG WYSHYNSKI
The Carolina Hurricanes shocked the New York Islanders on Monday night, scoring the game-tying and winning goals just nine seconds apart in the third period, giving them a 2-0 lead in their Eastern Conference Round 1 series.
“This one’s long from over, but right now, this one hurts the gut,” Islanders captain Anders Lee said after the 5-3 loss in Raleigh, North Carolina.
With his team’s net empty, Hurricanes center Sebastian Aho deflected an Andrei Svechnikov pass to tie the game with 2:15 left in the third period, erasing a 3-0 lead the Islanders had built in the first 23:54 of the game.
“When you’re down three, it’s a once in a lifetime-type of game,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “I’m just proud of the way they kept playing.”
Jordan Martinook gave Carolina the lead just nine seconds later, stealing the puck from defenseman Noah Dobson on the forecheck and tucking it behind Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov, who was looking in the opposite direction in anticipation of Dobson having moved the puck.
“The momentum of us tying the game and the energy that it sends … I don’t really know how to describe it,” Martinook said. “You have this juice that hits you.”
The Hurricanes set a new NHL record for the fastest game-tying and winning goals scored in the third period of a playoff game. It was the seventh time in NHL history that a team had tied and won the game in the final three minutes of a playoff game. Carolina was already on that list, having tied and beaten the New Jersey Devils in a conference quarterfinal game in 2009.
Teuvo Teravainen and Seth Jarvis had the goals before Aho’s, while Jake Guentzel added an empty netter to seal the win.
“We had a good start. We took a 3-0 lead,” Islanders coach Patrick Roy said. “For some reason, we started losing those 1-on-1 battles. That was the biggest difference from the first half of the game to the second half.”
Carolina dominated possession against the Islanders, with a 110-to-28 advantage in shot attempts. That was never more evident than in the third period, when the Islanders were outshot 17-1.
“We have to be better there. We can’t just get a lead and try to hold on,” Dobson said. “They’re too good of a team for that. This stings right now. We’ve got to learn from it.”
Game 3 of the series is Thursday night at UBS Arena on Long Island.
“It’s a tough loss, no doubt about it. We had a chance to win that game,” Roy said. “But we’ve got to regroup, play well in our building and win game number three.”
The Hurricanes might be short-handed when the series shifts to New York. After the win, Brind’Amour addressed the lower-body injury that defenseman Brett Pesce suffered in the second period, saying it’s “not looking good,” and that the veteran was scheduled for further evaluation Tuesday.
GLADEWATER â According to our news partner KETK, the Gladewater ISD board of trustees unanimously made the decision on Monday to move to a four-day school week and opted not to have classes on Mondays. Unlike other districts that decided on having a four-day school week with Fridays off, the district of Gladewater will not be in session Mondays of the coming school year. The school board president said this will help attract and retain teachers, giving them more flexibility in their personal lives.
âAs you are trying to be competitive in the workplace and attract staff, you want you want to offer something different,â Ross Morgan, school board president, said. âThe main component teachers are absent because they have to go to the doctor or they have to take their child to the doctor or maybe a parent to the doctor. A lot of doctorâs offices arenât open very long if all on Fridays and that was one kind of long discussion or kind of a really important point as to why Mondays are better.â Read the rest of this entry »
MARSHALL â The Marshall Police Department said that they arrested a man and a woman following a theft incident at a Walmart in Marshall on Friday night. According to our news partner KETK, officers were called to the scene on Friday to respond to a shoplifting incident involving a man and a woman. Bridgette Eleanor Peyton, 32 of Burlington, WI, was arrested for failure to identify as a fugitive, credit or debit card abuse, theft of property worth between $100 and $750 and two warrants from Wisconsin.
After Peyton was detained, officers were reportedly told about a fight happening in the parking lot. Marshall PD said the fight was between the owner of a vehicle and a man allegedly caught trying to break into some cars in the parking lot.
Nicholas Eberle, 41 of Franksville, WI, was arrested after a reported short foot chase and charged with theft of property worth $750 and $2,500, evading arrest and detention, failure to identify as a fugitive and a warrant from Wisconsin. Read the rest of this entry »
HARRISON COUNTY â A 44-year-old woman was arrested on Sunday in Harrison County after drugs were found during a traffic stop. According to our news partner KETK, Teresa Oney, of Harleton, was stopped for defective equipment at Highway 80 and Loop 281 where deputies conducted a probable cause search. Officials said marijuana and methamphetamines were found, and Oney had five active warrants for her arrest. She was arrested for possession of a controlled substance, possession of marijuana, tampering with evidence and the active warrants.
LONGVIEW â According to our news partner KETK, the Longview Fire Department put out a notice to the public saying that a dangerous drug was found. âWe had a recent encounter with âcandyâ that tested positive for fentanyl,â LFD said in a Facebook post. âThis is a narcotic that can be lethal when ingested. This drug is being used to lace other substances and cannot be detected through taste or smell.â
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid drug said to be 100 times more potent that morphine and 50 times stronger than heroin. It is often disguised as other pills or added into other drugs as it makes drugs cheaper, more powerful and more addictive. However, the drug is also more deadly and canât be seen, tasted or smelled. Fentanyl test strips are used to test if drugs are further contaminated with the substance. Read the rest of this entry »
MULESHOE (AP) – A hack that caused a small Texas townâs water system to overflow in January has been linked to a shadowy Russian hacktivist group, the latest case of a U.S. public utility becoming a target of foreign cyberattacks. The attack was one of three on small towns in the rural Texas Panhandle. Local officials said the public was not put in any danger and the attempts were reported to federal authorities.
âThere were 37,000 attempts in four days to log into our firewall,â said Mike Cypert, city manager of Hale Center, which is home to about 2,000 residents. The attempted hack failed as the city âunpluggedâ the system and operated it manually, he added.
In Muleshoe, about 60 miles to the west and with a population of about 5,000, hackers caused the water system to overflow before it was shut down and taken over manually by officials, city manager Ramon Sanchez told CNN. He did not immediately respond to phone calls from The Associated Press seeking comment.
âThe incident was quickly addressed and resolved,â Sanchez said in a statement, according to KAMC-TV. âThe cityâs water disinfectant system was not affected, and the public water system nor the public was in any danger.â
At least one of the attacks was linked this week by Mandiant, a U.S. cybersecurity firm, to a shadowy Russian hacktivist group that it said could be working with or part of a Russian military hacking unit.
The group, calling itself CyberArmyofRussia_Reborn, claimed responsibility for January attacks on water facilities in the United States and Poland that got little attention at the time.
Cybersecurity researchers say CyberArmyofRussia_Reborn was among groups suspected of Russian government ties that engaged last year in low-complexity attacks against Ukraine and its allies, including denial-of-service data barrages that temporarily knock websites offline.
Sometimes such groups claim responsibility for attacks that were actually carried out by Kremlin military intelligence hackers, Microsoft reported in December.
Cypert, the Hale Center city manager, said he has turned information over to FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.
The FBI declined to comment, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, a branch of DHS, referred questions to the cities that were targeted.
In Lockney, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) east of Hale Center and home to around 1,500 people, cyberattackers were thwarted before they could access that townâs water system, city manager Buster Poling said.
âIt didnât cause any problems except being a nuisance,â Poling said.
Last year CISA put out an advisory following November hacks on U.S. water facilities attributed to Iranian state groups who said they were targeting facilities using Israeli equipment.
Deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger said in December that attacks by Iranian hackers â as well as a separate spate of ransomware attacks on the health care industry â should be seen as a call to action by utilities and industry to tighten cybersecurity.
In March, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael S. Regan and Jake Sullivan, assistant to the president for National Security Affairs, sent a letter to the nationâs governors asking them to take steps to protect the water supply, including assessing cybersecurity and planning for a cyberattack.
âDrinking water and wastewater systems are an attractive target for cyberattacks because they are a lifeline critical infrastructure sector but often lack the resources and technical capacity to adopt rigorous cybersecurity practices,â Regan and Sullivan wrote.
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AP Technology Writer Frank Bajak contributed to this report.
AUSTIN (AP) â A Texas appeals court has ruled that Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton can face discipline from the state bar association over his failed effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election. A disciplinary committee of the State Bar of Texas accused Paxton in 2022 of making false claims of fraud in a lawsuit that questioned President Joe Biden’s victory. On Thursday, a three-judge panel of the 5th District Court of Appeals said Paxton can be sanctioned by the committee because the lawsuit seeks to punish him in his personal capacity as an attorney and not as a public official.
âThe focus of the Commissionâs allegations is squarely on Paxtonâs alleged misconduct â not that of the State,â Judge Erin Nowell, an elected Democrat, wrote in the 2-1 opinion.
The lone Republican on the panel, Judge Emily Miskel, was in dissent.
A similar lawsuit was also brought against one of Paxton’s top deputies. Earlier this week, a coalition of state Republican attorneys general urged the Texas Supreme Court to reject efforts by the bar to impose discipline. All nine members of the state’s highest civil court are Republicans.
âAs in that case, we will appeal this ruling and we have full confidence the Supreme Court of Texas will not allow false claims by the State Bar and partisan political revenge to affect professional licensure of the stateâs lawyers,â Paxton spokeswoman Paige Willey said in a statement.
A spokeswoman for the State Bar of Texas and the committee accusing Paxton declined to comment on the ruling.
Paxton is among the highest-profile attorneys to face a threat of sanctions for aiding in efforts led by former President Donald Trump to throw into question Trump’s defeat.
The state bar’s disciplinary group’s punishments against an attorney can range from a written admonition to a suspension or disbarment. The disciplinary process resembles a trial and could include both sides eliciting testimony and obtaining records through discovery.
Paxton is not required to have bar membership in order to serve as attorney general.
State bar officials began investigating complaints over Paxtonâs election lawsuit in 2021. A similar disciplinary proceeding was launched by the group against Paxton’s top deputy. That case awaits a ruling by the Texas Supreme Court.
AUSTIN (AP) â A 10-year-old boy has confessed to an unsolved killing in Texas, telling investigators that he shot a man he did not know while the victim slept, authorities said Friday.
The boy, who was just shy of his eighth birthday when the man was shot two years ago, has been evaluated at a psychiatric hospital but cannot be charged with the crime because of his age at the time, the Gonzales County Sheriffâs Office said in a news release. Texas law requires a child to be at least 10 years old to have criminal culpability. The boy is being held in juvenile detention for threatening a student on a bus in another incident earlier this month, authorities said.
Brandon O’Quinn Rasberry, 32, was shot in the head in 2022 while he slept at an RV park in Nixon, Texas, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) east of San Antonio, investigators said. He had just moved in a few days before.
The boy’s possible connection to the case was uncovered after sheriff’s deputies were contacted on April 12 of this year about a student who threatened to assault and kill another student on a school bus. They learned the boy had made previous statements that he had killed someone two years ago.
The boy was taken to a child advocacy center, where he described for interviewers details of Rasberry’s death âconsistent with first-hand knowledgeâ of the crime, investigators said.
The boy said he had been visiting his grandfather, who lived a few lots away from Rasberry in the RV park. He described the 9 mm pistol and its âdirt and army greenâ color, and said he took it from the glove box of his grandfather’s truck.
The boy described entering Rasberry’s RV, shooting him in the head, and shooting again into the couch before leaving, then returning the gun to the truck, investigators said.
The boy told his interviewer he had seen Rasberry in the RV park earlier in the day, but never met him and had no reason to be mad at him. Rasberry’s body was found after he failed to show up for work for two days.
The boy said his grandfather later sold the pistol. Deputies located it at a pawn shop. Shell casings from the previous crime scene were matched to the gun, investigators said.
The boy was placed in 72-hour emergency detention âbecause of the severity of the crime and because of the continued concern for the childâs mental wellbeing,â the sheriffâs office said.
He was brought to a psychiatric hospital in San Antonio for evaluation and treatment and then was taken back to Gonzales County. He was placed in juvenile detention on a charge of making a terroristic threat for the school bus incident.
It was not immediately clear if the boy’s family has an attorney. The Associated Press left a telephone message seeking comment at the office of Gonzales County Attorney Paul Watkins.
TYLER â The defense team of a former nurse convicted of murder, appeared in court on Thursday to discuss the reported harassment of jurors. According to our news partner KETK, the 114th district court convened on Thursday to address Judge Austin Reeve Jacksonâs motion against the legal team of a convicted former CHRISTUS Trinity Mother Francis nurse. Reeve Jackson said the court had received numerous complaints of investigators and lawyers attempting to contact jurors and ârefusing to accept the answer of âno, I do not want to speak with you.ââ
The judge said jurors informed the court that spouses had opened the door and informed members of the defense that the juror did not wish to speak to the legal team. Jurors were also reportedly âcontacted multiple times in the morning, late at night, interrupting family hours, dinner hours from kids and other family members.â Read the rest of this entry »
NACOGDOCHES COUNTY â A Memphis man was arrested in Nacogdoches after deputies seized about 319 pounds of promethazine on Saturday during a traffic stop. According to our news partner KETK, deputies pulled over Rodarius Criss, 24, at around 1 a.m. for a traffic violation. A K9 officer was called after Criss reportedly denied deputies permission to search the vehicle. After the K9 alerted officials, a probable cause search was conducted, a release said. Criss was charged with possession of a dangerous drug.
Promethazine is a prescription medication used to treat allergies and nausea, the National Library of Medicine said. The sheriffâs office said the drug is misused for its sedative effects. Read the rest of this entry »
CROCKETT â The Crockett Police Department had a simple traffic stop on Tuesday net them eight pounds of cocaine. According to our news partner KETK, the CPD stopped 30-year-old Eric Galvan of Jacksonville and 31-year-old Emilio Osorio of Tyler for a traffic violation. During the vehicle inspection, officers found an aftermarket speaker box in the truck. Inside the box, they found three âbricks of suspected cocaineâ wrapped in electrical tape that weighed over eight pounds. At this time, Galvan tried to run. But, he was quickly caught and arrested. Galvan was charged with possession of a controlled substance, evading arrest or detention, and resisting arrest, search or transport. Osorio was charged with possession of a controlled substance. Both were booked into the Houston County jail.
GREGG COUNTY â According to our news partner KETK, a former East Texas elementary school teacher pleaded guilty on Monday to four counts of injury to a child causing bodily injury. Cecilia Gregg, who reportedly had been working with the district since 2009, was charged with four counts for allegedly striking students with her hand.
In July 2022, six former J.L. Everhart employees were indicted for charges related to the mistreatment of elementary students: Paula Hawkins Dixon, 58, Cassandra Renee James, 48, Linda Kaye Brown Lister, 61, Priscilla Johnson, 56, Cecilia Gregg, 57, Cynthia Telley, 56.
Longview ISD released a statement in 2022 addressing the allegations. Read the rest of this entry »
JACKSONVILLE â According to our news partner KETK, an investigation is open into allegations of a teacher injuring a student by the Jacksonville Independent School District. Concerned parent Ashelle Whitaker said her 7-year-old son was hurt by his second grade teacher. Whitaker said physical marks and his reaction were telling that something happened.
âI see him coming down the hallway with a bloody tissue up to his mouth and his eyes swollen, him crying his eyes out, snot rolling down,â said Whitaker. âHe said [the teacher] took me into the room alone, and she repeatedly pushed me up against the wall and I could not breathe,â said Whitaker. Whitaker was heartbroken and she immediately called 911, filed a report with CPS, the schoolâs resource officer spoke with the Smith County Advocacy Center. Read the rest of this entry »
TYLER â According to our news partner KETK, Tyler ISD said a bus carrying students hit a parked car on Appletree Lane on Thursday after the bus driver had a âunusual medical situation.â According to a Tyler ISD representative, the bus driver and students were uninjured after the bus hit the car but the driver is being checked out by first responders at the scene.