Zuccarello gets tiebreaking goal late in 3rd period, Wild rally to beat Kings 3-1

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Mats Zuccarello scored the tiebreaking power-play goal with 4:38 left and the Minnesota Wild beat the Los Angeles Kings 3-1 on Monday night.

Ryan Hartman had a goal and an assist, Marcus Johansson also scored, and Jared Spurgeon had two assists for Minnesota. Filip Gustavsson finished with 28 saves.

Adrian Kempe scored for Los Angeles, and Darcy Kuemper — coming off shutouts in his last two starts — had 19 saves. The Kings snapped a five-game win streak.

Zuccarello got a pass from Matt Boldy in the left circle, settled the puck and fired it past Kuemper with Marco Rossi screening the goalie to give Minnesota a 2-1 lead. It was hist 100th goal since signing with the Wild in 2019.

Johansson added an empty-netter with 56 seconds left to seal the win.

Kempe gave the Kings a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal 4:59 into the game as he scored on a one-timer from the right circle off a pass from Kevin Fiala.

Hartman tied it at 1:51 of the second with a power-play goal as he redirected Jared Spurgeon's point shot in the air past Kuemper. That ended the goalie's shutout streak at 176:06.

Kings: Los Angeles fell to 25-7-4 when scoring first and remained one point behind Edmonton for second place in Pacific Division.

Wild: Minnesota won for the second time in six games (2-3-1). The Wild have a firm grip on the first wild card in the Western Conference and pulled four points behind third-place Colorado in Central Division

Gustavsson made a stellar save to snare Drew Doughty's one timer from center point through traffic 2:05 into the third period to keep the score tied 1-1.

The Wild were 2 for 3 on the power play after coming in 2 for 6 over the previous three games.

Kings play at Chicago on Thursday to finish a two-game trip, and Wild host Seattle on Wednesday,

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

This version has been corrected to show final score was 3-1 in 1st paragraph.

Los Angeles Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper defends his net against the Minnesota Wild during the first period of an NHL hockey game Monday, March 17, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Matt Krohn)

Minnesota Wild left wing Matt Boldy, center, passes the puck as Los Angeles Kings defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov, left, and Jordan Spence, second from right, defend during the first period of an NHL hockey game Monday, March 17, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Matt Krohn)

Los Angeles Kings left wing Warren Foegele, left, skates with the puck as Minnesota Wild right wing Mats Zuccarello defends during the second period of an NHL hockey game Monday, March 17, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Matt Krohn)

Minnesota Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson defends the net against the Los Angeles Kings during the second period of an NHL hockey game Monday, March 17, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Matt Krohn)

Los Angeles Kings defenseman Drew Doughty, left, shoots as Minnesota Wild center Devin Shore, right, defends during the second period of an NHL hockey game Monday, March 17, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Matt Krohn)

Minnesota Wild center Devin Shore, right, and Los Angeles Kings defenseman Drew Doughty, left, compete for the puck during the first period of an NHL hockey game Monday, March 17, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Matt Krohn)

Minnesota Wild right wing Ryan Hartman, front, checks Los Angeles Kings left wing Warren Foegele, top, during the first period of an NHL hockey game Monday, March 17, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Matt Krohn)

Minnesota Wild right wing Ryan Hartman (38) celebrates with teammates after his goal during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Los Angeles Kings, Monday, March 17, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Matt Krohn)

HWANGE, Zimbabwe (AP) — When GPS-triggered alerts show an elephant herd heading toward villages near Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park, Capon Sibanda springs into action. He posts warnings in WhatsApp groups before speeding off on his bicycle to inform nearby residents without phones or network access.

The new system of tracking elephants wearing GPS collars was launched last year by the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority and the International Fund for Animal Welfare. It aims to prevent dangerous encounters between people and elephants, which are more frequent as climate change worsens competition for food and water.

“When we started it was more of a challenge, but it’s becoming phenomenal,” said Sibanda, 29, one of the local volunteers trained to be community guardians.

For generations, villagers banged pots, shouted or burned dung to drive away elephants. But worsening droughts and shrinking resources have pushed the animals to raid villages more often, destroying crops and infrastructure and sometimes injuring or killing people.

Zimbabwe's elephant population is estimated at around 100,000, nearly double the land’s capacity. The country hasn’t culled elephants in close to four decades. That's because of pressure from wildlife conservation activists, and because the process is expensive, according to parks spokesman Tinashe Farawo.

Conflicts between humans and wildlife such as elephants, lions and hyenas killed 18 people across the southern African country between January and April this year, forcing park authorities to kill 158 “trouble” animals during that period.

“Droughts are getting worse. The elephants devour the little that we harvest,” said Senzeni Sibanda, a local councilor and farmer, tending her tomato crop with cow dung manure in a community garden that also supports a school feeding program.

Technology now supports the traditional tactics. Through the EarthRanger platform introduced by IFAW, authorities track collared elephants in real time. Maps show their proximity to the buffer zone — delineated on digital maps, not by fences — that separate the park and hunting concessions from community land.

At a park restaurant one morning IFAW field operations manager Arnold Tshipa monitored moving icons on his laptop as he waited for breakfast. When an icon crossed a red line, signaling a breach, an alert pinged.

“We’re going to be able to see the interactions between wildlife and people,” Tshipa said. “This allows us to give more resources to particular areas."

The system also logs incidents like crop damage or attacks on people and livestock by predators such as lions or hyenas and retaliatory attacks on wildlife by humans. It also tracks the location of community guardians like Capon Sibanda.

“Every time I wake up, I take my bike, I take my gadget and hit the road,” Sibanda said. He collects and stores data on his phone, usually with photos. “Within a blink,” alerts go to rangers and villagers, he said.

His commitment has earned admiration from locals, who sometimes gift him crops or meat. He also receives a monthly food allotment worth about $80 along with internet data.

Parks agency director Edson Gandiwa said the platform ensures that “conservation decisions are informed by robust scientific data.”

Villagers like Senzeni Sibanda say the system is making a difference: “We still bang pans, but now we get warnings in time and rangers react more quickly.”

Still, frustration lingers. Sibanda has lost crops and water infrastructure to elephant raids and wants stronger action. “Why aren’t you culling them so that we benefit?” she asked. “We have too many elephants anyway.”

Her community, home to several hundred people, receives only a small share of annual trophy hunting revenues, roughly the value of one elephant or between $10,000 and $80,000, which goes toward water repairs or fencing. She wants a rise in Zimbabwe's hunting quota, which stands at 500 elephants per year, and her community's share increased.

The elephant debate has made headlines. In September last year, activists protested after Zimbabwe and Namibia proposed slaughtering elephants to feed drought-stricken communities. Botswana’s then-president offered to gift 20,000 elephants to Germany, and the country’s wildlife minister mock-suggested sending 10,000 to Hyde Park in the heart of London so Britons could “have a taste of living alongside elephants.”

Zimbabwe's collaring project may offer a way forward. Sixteen elephants, mostly matriarchs, have been fitted with GPS collars, allowing rangers to track entire herds by following their leaders. But Hwange holds about 45,000 elephants, and parks officials say it has capacity for 15,000. Project officials acknowledge a huge gap remains.

In a recent collaring mission, a team of ecologists, vets, trackers and rangers identified a herd. A marksman darted the matriarch from a distance. After some tracking using a drone and a truck, team members fitted the collar, whose battery lasts between two and four years. Some collected blood samples. Rangers with rifles kept watch.

Once the collar was secured, an antidote was administered, and the matriarch staggered off into the wild, flapping its ears.

“Every second counts,” said Kudzai Mapurisa, a parks agency veterinarian.

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An elephant walks in the Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe, Monday, April 28 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Ufumeli)

Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority and the International Fund for Animal Welfare officers monitor an elephant's movement using a drone in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Ufumeli)

Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority officer carries a collar to be used to track an in elephant in the Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe, Tuesday, April 29 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Ufumeli)

Kudzai Mapurisa, a Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority veterinarian, prepares to dart an elephant in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Ufumeli)

A Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority ranger carries a dart gun for elephants in the Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Ufumeli)

Capon Sibanda, left, a community guardian for encounters between people and elephants, talks with Senzeni Sibanda, a local councilor and farmer, in Hwange, Zimbabwe, Wednesday, April 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Ufumeli)