Minten scores twice in huge homecoming to lift Bruins over Canucks 3-2 in OT

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Fraser Minten scored his second goal of the game 4:41 into overtime to cap a huge homecoming as the Boston Bruins beat the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 on Saturday night.

Playing his first NHL game in his hometown, Minten opened the scoring in the first period with a power-play goal before dozens of friends and family members in the crowd.

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Boston Bruins’ Fraser Minten, left, celebrates after his goal against the Vancouver Canucks with Alex Steeves (21), Hampus Lindholm (27), and Casey Mittelstadt (11) during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Vancouver, British Columbia, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (Ethan Cairns/The Canadian Press via AP)

Boston Bruins’ Fraser Minten (93) celebrates his game-winning goal against the Vancouver Canucks as Canucks goaltender Kevin Lankinen (32) lays on the ice and Tom Willander (5) skates away during overtime in an NHL hockey game in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (Ethan Cairns/The Canadian Press via AP)

Boston Bruins’ Fraser Minten (93) scores on Vancouver Canucks goaltender Kevin Lankinen (32) as Kiefer Sherwood (44) defends during overtime in an NHL hockey game in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (Ethan Cairns/The Canadian Press via AP)

Boston Bruins’ Fraser Minten (93) celebrates his game-winning goal against the Vancouver Canucks during overtime in an NHL hockey game in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (Ethan Cairns/The Canadian Press via AP)

Boston Bruins’ Fraser Minten (93) celebrates his game-winning goal against the Vancouver Canucks during overtime in an NHL hockey game in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (Ethan Cairns/The Canadian Press via AP)

Elias Lindholm also scored for Boston with the man advantage. David Pastrnak had two assists and Jeremy Swayman stopped 31 shots.

It was the Bruins’ second straight win after losing six games in a row (0-4-2).

The Canucks got a goal and an assist from Filip Hronek. Elias Pettersson also scored and Kevin Lankinen made 18 saves.

Minten said after Saturday’s morning skate he expected between 50 and 100 supporters in the stands. A bevy of fans clad in Bruins jerseys broke into cheers when the 21-year-old center scored on a one-timer from the slot 16:24 into the game.

Vancouver, coming off a 4-3 shootout loss Friday to Seattle, outshot the Bruins 33-21 and outhit them 34-16.

Less than 24 hours after going 2 for 3 on the power play against Seattle, Vancouver’s special teams struggled. The Canucks went 1 for 6 with the man advantage and gave up goals on two of the three penalties they took.

Vancouver will go six weeks without a win on home ice. The Canucks last won at Rogers Arena on Dec. 6 when they beat Minnesota 4-2, and they won’t play at the rink again until Jan. 17 when they host the Edmonton Oilers.

Bruins: At Seattle on Tuesday night to finish a five-game trip.

Canucks: At Buffalo on Tuesday night to open a six-game trip.

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

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro arrived in the United States to face criminal charges after being captured in an audacious nighttime military operation that President Donald Trump said would set the U.S. up to “run” the South American country and tap its vast oil reserves to sell to other nations.

Maduro landed Saturday evening at a small airport in New York following the middle-of-the-night operation that extracted him and his wife, Cilia Flores, from their home in a military base in the capital city of Caracas — an act that Maduro’s government called “imperialist.” The couple faces U.S. charges of participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy.

The dramatic action capped an intensive Trump administration pressure campaign on Venezuela’s autocratic leader and months of secret planning, resulting in the most assertive American action to achieve regime change since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Legal experts raised questions about the lawfulness of the operation, which was done without congressional approval. Venezuela’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, meanwhile, demanded that the United States free Maduro and called him the country’s rightful leader as her nation’s high court named her interim president.

Some Venezuelan civilians and members of the military were killed, said Rodríguez, who didn’t give a number. Trump said some U.S. forces were injured, but none were killed.

Speaking to reporters hours after Maduro’s capture, Trump revealed his plans to exploit the leadership void to “fix” the country’s oil infrastructure and sell “large amounts” of oil to other countries.

The Trump administration promoted the ouster as a step toward reducing the flow of dangerous drugs into the U.S. The president touted what he saw as other potential benefits, including a leadership stake in the country and greater control of oil.

Trump claimed the U.S. government would help lead the country and was already doing so, though there were no immediate visible signs of that. Venezuelan state TV aired pro-Maduro propaganda and broadcast live images of supporters taking to the streets in Caracas in protest.

“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said at a Mar-a-Lago news conference. He boasted that this “extremely successful operation should serve as warning to anyone who would threaten American sovereignty or endanger American lives.”

Maduro and other Venezuelan officials were indicted in 2020 on narco-terrorism conspiracy charges, and the Justice Department released a new indictment Saturday of Maduro and his wife that painted his administration as a “corrupt, illegitimate government” fueled by a drug-trafficking operation that flooded the U.S with cocaine. The U.S. government does not recognize Maduro as the country’s leader.

The Trump administration spent months building up American forces in the region and carrying out attacks on boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean for allegedly ferrying drugs. Last week, the CIA was behind a drone strike at a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels — the first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the U.S. campaign began in September.

Taking place 36 years to the day after the 1990 surrender and seizure of Panama leader Manuel Antonio Noriega following a U.S. invasion, the Venezuela operation unfolded under the cover of darkness early Saturday. Trump said the U.S. turned off “almost all of the lights” in Caracas while forces moved in to extract Maduro and his wife.

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said U.S. forces had rehearsed their maneuvers for months, learning everything about Maduro — where he was and what he ate, as well as details of his pets and his clothes.

“We think, we develop, we train, we rehearse, we debrief, we rehearse again and again,” Caine said. “Not to get it right, but to ensure we cannot get it wrong.”

Multiple explosions rang out that morning, and low-flying aircraft swept through Caracas. Maduro’s government accused the United States of hitting civilian and military installations, calling it an “imperialist attack” and urging citizens to take to the streets. The explosions — at least seven blasts — sent people rushing into the streets, while others took to social media to report what they saw and heard.

Under Venezuelan law, Rodríguez would take over from Maduro. Rodríguez, however, stressed during a Saturday appearance on state television that she did not plan to assume power, before Venezuela’s high court ordered that she become interim president.

“There is only one president in Venezuela,” Rodriguez said, “and his name is Nicolás Maduro Moros.”

Venezuela’s ruling party has held power since 1999, when Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez, took office, promising to uplift poor people and later to implement a self-described socialist revolution.

Maduro took over when Chávez died in 2013. His 2018 reelection was widely considered a sham because the main opposition parties were banned from participating. During the 2024 election, electoral authorities loyal to the ruling party declared him the winner hours after polls closed, but the opposition gathered overwhelming evidence that he lost by a more than 2-to-1 margin.

In a demonstration of how polarizing Maduro is, people variously took to the streets to protest his capture, while others celebrated it. At a protest in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, Mayor Carmen Meléndez joined a crowd demanding Maduro’s return.

“Maduro, hold on, the people are rising up!” the crowd chanted. “We are here, Nicolás Maduro. If you can hear us, we are here!”

In other parts of the city, the streets were empty hours after the attack.

“How do I feel? Scared, like everyone,” said Caracas resident Noris Prada, who sat on an empty avenue looking at his phone. “Venezuelans woke up scared. Many families couldn’t sleep.”

In Doral, Florida, home to the largest Venezuelan community in the United States, people wrapped themselves in Venezuelan flags, ate fried snacks and cheered as music played. At one point, the crowd chanted “Liberty! Liberty! Liberty!”

Whether the United States violated any laws, international or otherwise, was still a question early Sunday. “There are a number of international legal concepts which the United States might have broken by capturing Maduro,” said Ilan Katz, an international law analyst.

In New York, the U.N. Security Council, acting on an emergency request from Colombia, planned to hold a meeting on U.S. operations in Venezuela on Monday morning. That was according to a council diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a meeting not yet made public.

Lawmakers from both American political parties have raised reservations and flat-out objections to the U.S. attacks on boats suspected of drug smuggling. Congress has not approved an authorization for the use of military force for such operations in the region.

Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he had seen no evidence that would justify Trump striking Venezuela without approval from Congress and demanded an immediate briefing by the administration on “its plan to ensure stability in the region and its legal justification for this decision.”

Toropin and Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Jorge Rueda in Caracas, Venezuela; Lisa Mascaro, Michelle L. Price, Seung Min Kim and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington; Farnoush Amiri in New York; and Larry Neumeister in South Amboy, New Jersey, contributed to this report.