WASHINGTON (AP) — Marco Rossi tied it in the third period, Matt Boldy scored the shootout winner and the Minnesota Wild rallied to beat the Washington Capitals 4-3 on Thursday night after Alex Ovechkin moved one step closer to breaking Wayne Gretzky's NHL career goals record.
Rossi scored with 8:41 left in regulation, 15 seconds after a would-be goal by Washington's Tom Wilson was disallowed for directing the puck into the net with a high stick. Boldy had the lone shootout goal.
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Washington Capitals right wing Tom Wilson (43) scores a goal past Minnesota Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, left, during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Washington Capitals defenseman John Carlson (74) battles for the puck against Minnesota Wild center Devin Shore (19) during the second period of an NHL hockey game, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Washington Capitals goaltender Charlie Lindgren (79) stops the puck in his jersey during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Minnesota Wild, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Minnesota Wild defenseman Jon Merrill (4) and Washington Capitals right wing Tom Wilson (43) battle in front of the net during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin (8) celebrates his goal during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Minnesota Wild, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin (8) celebrates his goal during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Minnesota Wild, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin (8) celebrates his goal during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Minnesota Wild, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin (8) shoots the puck as Minnesota Wild defenseman Declan Chisholm (47) defends during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Minnesota Wild center Yakov Trenin (13) celebrates his goal during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Washington Capitals, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Minnesota Wild right wing Ryan Hartman (38) celebrates his goal during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Washington Capitals, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
The Wild won their first game without injured captain Jared Spurgeon, who is expected to miss 2-3 weeks after getting slew-footed earlier in the week. Yakov Trenin scored short-handed, Ryan Hartman had his first goal since Nov. 19 and Marc-Andre Fleury made 28 saves in regulation and overtime to help Minnesota improve to 3-1 without leading scorer Kirill Kaprizov.
Ovechkin beat Fleury for his 871st career goal, scoring on him for a 28th time in 47 games against him over the past two decades in the NHL. Wilson and Martin Fehervary had the other goals for the Capitals, while Lindgren made 30 saves but misplayed the puck to allow Trenin to score.
Wild: No Spurgeon, no Kaprizov, no problem. As coach John Hynes said earlier in the day, it's about finding a way to win even with important players out, and his team has figured out how to do that.
Capitals: They played a solid game but did not handle the wave of momentum well from Wilson's goal being waved off to Rossi scoring immediately after.
Fleury turned aside Ovechkin in the shootout to end his final game at Washington on a high note.
The Capitals had their first shootout of the season in their 38th game.
The Capitals host the New York Rangers on Saturday, while the Wild are at Carolina that night.
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
Washington Capitals right wing Tom Wilson (43) scores a goal past Minnesota Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, left, during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Washington Capitals defenseman John Carlson (74) battles for the puck against Minnesota Wild center Devin Shore (19) during the second period of an NHL hockey game, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Washington Capitals goaltender Charlie Lindgren (79) stops the puck in his jersey during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Minnesota Wild, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Minnesota Wild defenseman Jon Merrill (4) and Washington Capitals right wing Tom Wilson (43) battle in front of the net during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin (8) celebrates his goal during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Minnesota Wild, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin (8) celebrates his goal during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Minnesota Wild, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin (8) celebrates his goal during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Minnesota Wild, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin (8) shoots the puck as Minnesota Wild defenseman Declan Chisholm (47) defends during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Minnesota Wild center Yakov Trenin (13) celebrates his goal during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Washington Capitals, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Minnesota Wild right wing Ryan Hartman (38) celebrates his goal during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Washington Capitals, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Days of unrelenting heavy rain and storms that killed at least 18 people worsened flooding as some rivers rose to near-record levels and inundated towns across an already saturated U.S. South and parts of the Midwest.
Cities ordered evacuations and rescue crews in inflatable boats checked on residents in Kentucky and Tennessee, while utilities shut off power and gas in a region stretching from Texas to Ohio.
“I think everybody was shocked at how quick (the river) actually did come up,” said salon owner Jessica Tuggle, who was watching Monday as murky brown water approached her business in Frankfort, Kentucky, the state capital along the swollen Kentucky River.
She said that as each new wave of rain arrived over the weekend, anxious residents hoped for a reprieve so they could just figure out how bad things would get and how to prepare. She and friends packed up everything she could haul out of her salon, including styling chairs, hair products and electronics, and they took it all to a nearby tap house up the hill.
“Everybody was just ‘stop raining, stop raining’ so we could get an idea of what the worst situation would be,” she said.
Officials diverted traffic and turned off utilities to businesses in the city as the river was expected to approach a record crest on Monday.
For many, there was a sense of dread that the worst was still to come.
“As long as I’ve been alive — and I’m 52 — this is the worst I’ve ever seen it,” said Wendy Quire, the general manager at the Brown Barrel restaurant downtown.
“The rain just won’t stop,” Quire said Sunday. “It’s been nonstop for days and days.”
The 18 reported deaths since the storms began on Wednesday included 10 in Tennessee. A 9-year-old boy in Kentucky was caught up in floodwaters while walking to catch his school bus. A 5-year-old boy in Arkansas died after a tree fell on his family’s home, police said. A 16-year-old volunteer Missouri firefighter died in a crash while seeking to rescue people caught in the storm.
The National Weather Service warned Sunday that dozens of locations in multiple states were expected to reach a “major flood stage,” with extensive flooding of structures, roads, bridges and other critical infrastructure possible.
In north-central Kentucky, emergency officials ordered a mandatory evacuation for Falmouth and Butler, towns near the bend of the rising Licking River. Thirty years ago, the river reached a record 50 feet (15 meters), resulting in five deaths and 1,000 homes destroyed.
The storms come after the Trump administration cut jobs at NWS forecast offices, leaving half of them with vacancy rates of about 20%, or double the level of a decade ago.
Forecasters attributed the violent weather to warm temperatures, an unstable atmosphere, strong winds and abundant moisture streaming from the Gulf.
The NWS said 5.06 inches (nearly 13 centimeters) of rain fell Saturday in Jonesboro, Arkansas — making it the wettest day ever recorded in April in the city. Memphis, Tennessee, received 14 inches (35 centimeters) of rain from Wednesday to Sunday, the NWS said.
Rives, a northwestern Tennessee town of about 200 people, was almost entirely underwater after the Obion River overflowed.
Domanic Scott went to check on his father in Rives after not hearing from him in a house where water reached the doorstep.
“It’s the first house we’ve ever paid off. The insurance companies around here won’t give flood insurance to anyone who lives in Rives because we’re too close to the river and the levees. So if we lose it, we’re kind of screwed without a house,” Scott said.
In Dyersburg, Tennessee, dozens of people arrived over the weekend at a storm shelter near a public school clutching blankets, pillows and other necessities. Just days earlier the city was hit by a tornado that caused millions of dollars in damage.
For some, grabbing the essentials also meant taking a closer look at the liquor cabinet.
In Frankfort, with water rising up to his window sills, resident Bill Jones fled his home in a boat, which he loaded with several boxes of bottles of bourbon.
Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Anthony Izaguirre in New York; Kimberlee Kruesi, in Nashville; Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas; Adrian Sainz in Memphis; Tennessee; Sarah Raza in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Obed Lamy in Rives, Tennessee; and Sophia Tareen in Chicago.
The rising Ohio River partially submerges the bronze statue of James Bradley along Riverside Drive, Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Covington, Ky. Cincinnati and the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge are seen across the Ohio River. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
A Canadian goose swims in the rising Ohio River at the intersection of River Riverside Place and Ben Bernstein Place, Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Covington, Ky., across the river from Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Carole Smith walks through her flooded home on Saturday, April 5, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
Search and rescue firefighters carry a boat to a flooded neighborhood on Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
A flooded neighborhood is seen on Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
Road crews work to clear Lee County Rd. 681 in Saltillo, Miss, Sunday, April 6, 2025, of downed trees that blocked the road following the severe weather that passed through the area Saturday night. (Thomas Wells /The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal via AP)
CORRECTS TO MICHAEL NOT MICHALE Michael Scott Memering looks out of his trailer after evacuating the Licking River RV Campground that was flooded by the rising waters of the Licking River, seen behind, Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Falmouth, Ky. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Bill Jones pulls his boat ashore, filled with bottles of bourbon, from a flooded home near the banks of the Kentucky River on Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
Search and rescue firefighters conduct wellness checks in a neighborhood on Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
Abner Wagers stands near flooded homes in the rising waters of the Kentucky River in Monterey, Ky,. Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
The flooded downtown area is seen on Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
Search and rescue firefighters speak to a resident in a flooded neighborhood on Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
A group of people survey damage at Pounders Mobile Home Park following a strong line of storms in the area in Muscle Shoals, Ala, Sunday, April 6, 2025. (Dan Busey/The TimesDaily via AP)
Search and rescue firefighters conduct wellness checks in a neighborhood on Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Frankfort, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
Abner Wagers walks in the rising waters of the Kentucky River on a flooded Monterey Pike in Monterey, Ky., Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Abner Wagers, right, and Brayden Baker, both with the Monterey Volunteer Fire Department, walk in the rising waters of the Kentucky River near a flooded home in Monterey, Ky., Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
the rising waters of Cedar Creek and the Kentucky River overflow their banks, Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Monterey, Ky. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
