Medicine Hat Tigers forward Gavin McKenna continued validating his projection as the 2026 NHL draft’s top prospect by extending his point streak to 45 games, matching the Canadian Hockey League’s second-longest run since 2000.
The 17-year-old McKenna had two assists in Game 5 of the Tigers' Western Hockey League first-round playoff series-clinching 3-2 win over the Swift Current Broncos on Friday night. The Eastern Conference's top-seeded Tigers' second-round playoff opponent has not yet been determined.
McKenna's 45-game run, including playoffs, matches former NHLer Brad Richards’ streak with Rimouski in 1999-2000, which also included playoffs. And he’s five short of former NHL player Alexander Radulov’s 50-game run with Quebec in 2005-06.
McKenna is from Whitehorse, Yukon, and was already labeled a generational talent when Medicine Hat selected him first overall in the 2022 bantam draft.
He was the CHL’s rookie of the year last season, and finished second in the WHL with 129 points (41 goals, 88 assists) in 56 games this year. McKenna failed to produce a point in just three games this season, the last time on Nov. 6.
He currently leads the WHL playoff points race with 16 (two goals, 14 assists).
Overall, McKenna has 79 goals and 165 assists for 244 points in 133 regular-season career WHL games.
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FILE - Gavin McKenna of Canada celebrates his 4-6 empty net goal and hat trick during the 2024 IIHF ice hockey U18 world championships final match between the United States and Canada in Espoo, Finland, Sunday, May 5, 2024. (Jussi Nukari/Lehtikuva via AP, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday said the Trump administration must work to bring back a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to prison in El Salvador, rejecting the administration’s emergency appeal.
The court acted in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen who had an immigration court order preventing his deportation to his native country over fears he would face persecution from local gangs.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis had ordered Abrego Garcia, now being held in a notorious Salvadoran prison, returned to the United States by midnight Monday.
“The order properly requires the Government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador,” the court said in an unsigned order with no noted dissents.
It comes after a string of rulings on the court's emergency docket where the conservative majority has at least partially sided with Trump amid a wave of lower court orders slowing the president's sweeping agenda.
In Thursday's case, Chief Justice John Roberts had already pushed back Xinis' deadline. The justices also said that her order must now be clarified to make sure it doesn’t intrude into executive branch power over foreign affairs, since Abrego Garcia is being held abroad. The court said the Trump administration should also be prepared to share what steps it has taken to try to get him back — and what more it could potentially do.
The administration claims Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang, though he has never been charged with or convicted of a crime. His attorneys said there is no evidence he was in MS-13.
The administration has conceded that it made a mistake in sending him to El Salvador, but argued that it no longer could do anything about it.
The court’s liberal justices said the administration should have hastened to correct “its egregious error” and was “plainly wrong” to suggest it could not bring him home.
“The Government’s argument, moreover, implies that it could deport and incarcerate any person, including U. S. citizens, without legal consequence, so long as it does so before a court can intervene,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, joined by her two colleagues.
Abrego Garcia's wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, said the ordeal has been an “emotional rollercoaster” for their family and the entire community.
“I am anxiously waiting for Kilmar to be here in my arms, and in our home putting our children to bed, knowing this nightmare is almost at its end. I will continue fighting until my husband is home,” she said.
One of his lawyers, Simon Sandoval-Moshenburg, said “tonight, the rule of law prevailed," and he encouraged the government to "stop wasting time and get moving.”
In the district court, Xinis wrote that the decision to arrest Abrego Garcia and send him to El Salvador appears to be “wholly lawless.” There is little to no evidence to support a “vague, uncorroborated” allegation that Abrego Garcia was once in the MS-13 street gang, Xinis wrote.
The 29-year-old was detained by immigration agents and deported last month.
He had a permit from the Homeland Security Department to legally work in the U.S. and was a sheet metal apprentice pursuing a journeyman license, his attorney said. His wife is a U.S. citizen.
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant DHS secretary for public affairs, said Thursday that the justices' order for clarification from the lower court was a win for the administration. “We look forward to continuing to advance our position in this case,” she said.
An immigration judge had previously barred the U.S. from deporting Abrego Garcia to El Salvador in 2019, finding that he faced likely persecution by local gangs.
A Justice Department lawyer conceded in a court hearing that Abrego Garcia should not have been deported. Attorney General Pam Bondi later removed the lawyer, Erez Reuveni, from the case and placed him on leave.
Associated Press writers Lindsay Whitehurst and Rebecca Santata contributed to this report.
Jennifer Vasquez Sura, the wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia of Maryland, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, speaks during a news conference at CASA's Multicultural Center in Hyattsville, Md., Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
