Kyrou scores 2, Holloway has goal and assist as Blues ground struggling Jets 4-1

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Jordan Kyrou scored twice and Dylan Holloway had a goal and assist to help lift the St. Louis Blues to a 4-1 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday night.

Robert Thomas also had an empty-net goal for the Blues, who are on a four-game point streak.

Kyrou and Holloway gave the Blues a 2-0 lead and scored 39 seconds apart during four-on-four play in the second period. Kyrou scored with 1:56 left in the period after his rebound went off Mark Scheifele’s skate, and Holloway notched his eighth goal of the season when he put in his own rebound past Connor Hellebuyck with 1:17 remaining.

Kyrou made it 3-0 at 6:38 of the third when Holloway, who was sitting on the ice, sent him a pass in the high slot.

Holloway extended his point streak to four games (four goals and three assists).

Joel Hofer made 22 saves for St. Louis, and Hellebuyck stopped 28 of the 31 shots he faced for the Jets.

Scheifele was the lone goal-scorer for the Jets, who have lost four consecutive games and are 1-5-0 in their past six.

Blues: Holloway and Kyrou were the engines propelling St. Louis. Kyrou finished with seven shots on goal and hit a post.

Jets: Winnipeg only won 36.2% of faceoffs and had a hard time getting pucks on net as the Blues blocked 14 shots.

The Jets were already having a sluggish second period when Kyrou and Holloway scored 39 seconds apart.

The Blues have picked up points in their past four games (3-0-1) — all under new head coach Jim Montgomery since he was hired on Nov. 24.

The Jets visit the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday, the same day the Blues visit the Calgary Flames.

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck (37) makes a save on a St. Louis Blues shot as Logan Stanley (64) slides in front of the net during the third period of their NHL hockey game in Winnipeg, Canada Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (Fred Greenslade/The Canadian Press via AP)

St. Louis Blues goaltender Joel Hofer (30) makes a save on a Winnipeg Jets shot as Cole Perfetti (91) looks for the rebound during the third period of their NHL hockey game in Winnipeg, Canada Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (Fred Greenslade/The Canadian Press via AP)

Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck (37) makes a save on St. Louis Blues' Radek Faksa (12) during the first period of their NHL hockey game in Winnipeg, Tuesday Dec. 3, 2024. (Fred Greenslade/The Canadian Press via AP)

St. Louis Blues goaltender Joel Hofer (30) makes a save on a Winnipeg Jets shot during the first period of their NHL hockey game in Winnipeg, Tuesday December 3, 2024. (Fred Greenslade/The Canadian Press via AP)

Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck (37) makes a save on St. Louis Blues' Jordan Kyrou (25) during the first period of their NHL hockey game in Winnipeg, Tuesday Dec. 3, 2024. (Fred Greenslade/The Canadian Press via AP)

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican soldiers and marines have seized over a ton of fentanyl pills in two raids in the north, with officials calling it the biggest catch of the synthetic opioid in the country’s history.

The raids came after a sharp drop in fentanyl seizures in Mexico earlier this year, and days after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump threatened to impose 25% tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico unless those countries cracked down on the flow of migrants and drugs across the border.

Mexico’s top security official said soldiers and marines late Tuesday spotted two men carrying guns in the northern state of Sinaloa, home to the drug cartel of the same name.

They chased the men, who ran into two houses. In one house soldiers found about 660 pounds (300 kilograms) of fentanyl, and in the other a truck packed with about 1,750 pounds (800 kilograms) of the drug, mostly in pill form.

“In Sinaloa, we achieved the biggest seizure in history of fentanyl,” Public Safety Secretary Omar Garcia Harfuch wrote in his social media accounts. Several guns were also seized and two men were arrested.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday that “this is an investigation that had been going on for some time, and yesterday it bore fruit."

But that claim contrasts with the seemingly random nature of the bust, which started with a military patrol “noticed the presence of two men carrying what appeared to be guns.”

In the past, Mexican security forces have sometimes used the story of following armed men running into houses as a pretext to enter homes without search warrants. In at least one case, the government version was disproved by security camera footage.

The latest haul was striking because fentanyl seizures in Mexico had fallen dramatically in the first half of the year. At some points during the summer, under former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, federal forces reported seizures amounted to as little as 50 grams (2 ounces) per week.

Figures for the first half of 2024 show that Mexican federal forces seized only 286 pounds (130 kilograms) of fentanyl nationwide between January and June, down 94% from the 5,135 pounds (2,329 kilograms) seized in 2023.

The synthetic opioid has been blamed for about 70,000 overdose deaths annually in the United States, and U.S. officials have tried to step up efforts to seize it as it comes over the border, often in the form of counterfeit pills made in Mexico from precursor chemicals largely imported from China.

López Obrador always denied that fentanyl is even produced in Mexico, though experts — and even members of his own administration — acknowledge that it is.

Also Wednesday, the U.S. State Department announced it was increasing the reward for the top leader of another cartel, Nemesio Oseguera, from $10 million to $15 million.

Oseguera, known by his nickname “El Mencho,” leads the Jalisco cartel, which like Sinaloa, is heavily involved in the manufacture and distribution of fentanyl and methamphetamines.

FILE - Mexican military and police patrol in Culiacan, Sinaloa state, Mexico, Jan. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Martin Urista, File)