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SAN JOSE – Macklin Celebrini scored at the 2:52 mark of overtime to complete his third career hat trick to give the San Jose Sharks a 3-2 win over the Utah Mammoth on Tuesday at SAP Center.

Handling the puck near the blue line and with the Sharks on a power play, Celebrini fired the puck past Utah goalie Vitek Vanecek for his 13th goal of the season.

The Sharks had a two-goal lead, but allowed two third-period goals to JJ Peterka, including the tying goal with 2:51 left in regulation.

Celebrini also scored even-strength goals at the 1:47 and 5:58 marks of the first period for his 11th and 12th goals of the season. Askarov had 14 saves in the first two periods and 10 more in the third, but a shot by Peterka from 40 feet away got between the goalie’s upper body and left arm to tie the game 2-2.

Coming into Tuesday, Askarov has been the NHL’s best goalie over the past two weeks with a .965 save percentage and a 4-1-0 record in his last five games.

According to Sportradar, Askarov is the first goalie since the 1955-56 season, when the NHL began tracking such statistics, to have a save percentage that high over a five-game stretch without a shutout.

After Peterka scored at the 9:25 mark of the third period to cut the Sharks’ lead to 2-1, the Mammoth thought they had tied the game with 6:22 left in regulation. But it was ruled on the ice that the Mammoth had interfered with Askarov, a call that was upheld after a coach’s challenge by Utah.

The Sharks were coming off a 1-2-0 road trip that finished with losses to the Calgary Flames and Seattle Kraken, and they didn’t score a 5-on-5 goal in any of the three games.

Celebrini solved that problem with a lightning-fast start against the Mammoth.

After the Sharks created a turnover inside their own zone, Will Smith started a rush the other way and got the puck to Celebrini, who carried it into the Utah zone. He then got the puck to Philipp Kurashev, who retrieved it behind the Mammoth net.

Kurashev then sent it out front to Smith, who snapped a pass across the slot to Celebrant. The 19-year-old took a moment before he fired it past Utah goalie Vitek Vanecek for his 11th of the season, 1:47 into the game.

Just 4:11 later, Celebrini broke up a Mammoth pass inside the Sharks’ to set up another rush. Sharks winger Collin Graf picked up the loose puck and sent it ahead to Celebrini, who went in alone on Vanecek and beat his former San Jose teammate five-hole for a 2-0 San Jose lead.

Celebrini’s second goal, which came on a breakaway after a pass from Collin Graf, represented his 29th point of the season, the most for any Sharks player through the first 20 games of the season.

Before Tuesday, Celebrini was third in the NHL with 27 points in 19 games, which was also the third-most ever by a teenager through 19 games, trailing only Sidney Crosby (30 in 2006-07) and Wayne Gretzky (30 in 1980-81). He recently tied Crosby and Gretzky for fewest games needed by a teenager to reach 26 points in a season (17; Nov. 11).

An owl found partially encased in concrete after it got inside a cement mixer in southwestern Utah is expected to fly free again after it was painstakingly cleaned by animal sanctuary workers who described the bird as a “fighter.”

The great horned owl was found at the Black Desert Resort in the southwestern part of the state and arrived at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah, earlier this month with its face, chest and right wing covered in dried concrete. After making sure the bird could breathe, sanctuary workers spent days cracking apart the concrete using forceps and cleaning its feathers using toothbrushes, dish soap and their fingers.

Two weeks later, it was able to fly again and is continuing its recovery in an aviary.

“He’s a youngster, which may be why he ended up in a concrete mixer, and we do believe he’s a male because he’s on the smaller side,” said Bart Richwalski with the animal sanctuary.

Great horned owls typically have a downy coating on their feathers that allows them to fly silently as they hunt. But the concrete frayed the rescued owl’s feathers, said Best Friends’ Chief Sanctuary Officer Judah Battista.

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Now the bird makes a “whooshing” sound as it flies, and the sanctuary won’t release it into the wild until it sheds its feathers and can again fly silently. That should occur next spring or summer, Battista said.

“Once our owl friend recovers, we anticipate taking him back to near where he was found, not on the construction site, but somewhere that is a natural habitat for him and release him and let him be,” Richwalski said.

In the spring, summer and fall, travelers flock to Utah’s Canyon Country for the rich red canyons, arches and bulbous rock formations found in the area’s two national parks, national monuments, state parks and recreation areas. However, few make it to this area in the winter, missing out on a unique outdoor getaway.

“If you’re looking for solitude, winter can be a great time to visit,” says Allison Yamamoto-Sparks, visitors services manager for San Juan County Economic Development and Visitor Services.If that wasn’t enough, visitors also receive better prices on tours and stays in Moab, the main city in Canyon Country.

“Lodging and guided activities often have discounted rates during the winter, and if you’re lucky you might even get to see some of our beautiful parks and red rock landscapes covered in a dusting of snow,” Yamamoto-Sparks says.

GETTING THERE

Canyonlands Regional Airport has daily direct flights from Phoenix and Denver on Contour Airlines, which partners with American Airlines and United Airlines. Otherwise, you can fly into Grand Junction, Colorado, or Salt Lake City and drive 112 miles or 234 miles, respectively, to Moab.

HIKE, BIKE OR SKI

Hiking is one of the most popular activities in the region, thanks to a network of hundreds of trails. “You can usually hike year-round in the lower elevations of the desert since it doesn’t get snow often,” Yamamoto-Sparks says.

It’s not all bad injury news for the Kansas State football team.

Head coach Chris Klieman expects Jerand Bradley to be healthy enough to play for the Wildcats when they head to Utah for their final Big 12 road game of the season Saturday at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

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That is a welcome development for the K-State offense. At this point in the season, the Wildcats need every healthy playmaker they have on the roster.

Klieman said Bradley’s return will “help a bunch.”

Bradley, a 6-foot-5 and 223-pound senior, has made 13 catches for 184 yards and two touchdowns this season. But he has only seen limited action. Bradley has missed four games because of injuries, including a 14-6 victory over Oklahoma State on Saturday.

There is a good chance he will be more involved than usual against Utah, as K-State recently lost top wide receiver Jayce Brown to a season-ending injury. K-State quarterback Avery Johnson will look to get the ball to Jaron Tibbs and Bradley on the perimeter.

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“Getting Jerand back will help us kind of stay the course there,” Klieman said, “after we lose a really explosive player like Jayce. We will lose him as an explosive player and there aren’t going to be probably as many explosive plays without Jayce. But hopefully we still have a really efficient wide receiver group.”

Brown ended the season with a team-high 41 catches for 712 yards and five touchdowns.

His injury was the latest in a string of unfortunate events for the Wildcats, who have also been playing without their leading tackler (Austin Romaine) and their best pass-rusher (Tobi Osunsanmi). Their top running back (Dylan Edwards) also left the team earlier this month.

SPOKANE (AP) — Braden Huff scored 22 points on 11-for-13 shooting and Davis Fogle had a career-high 19 points as No. 13 Gonzaga beat Southern Utah 122-50 on Monday night.

Mario Saint-Supery added 16 points, seven assists and six steals in his first career start for the Bulldogs (5-0), who secured the second-largest scoring output and margin of victory in program history. Graham Ike and Adam Miller had 13 points apiece for Gonzaga.

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Elijah Duval scored 10 points to lead Southern Utah (1-4) as it fell to its worst start under third-year coach Rob Jeter. The Thunderbirds struggled offensively all night, finishing with more turnovers (23) than made field goals (18).

Gonzaga jumped out to a 17-2 lead behind smothering defense and transition scoring. One early sequence began with Ike blocking a layup attempt from Zach Bell, nearly pinning the ball against the backboard. It ended with Adam Miller hoisting a lob to Tyon Grant-Foster for a two-handed finish.

NO. 16 IOWA STATE 96, STONEHILL 57

AMES, Iowa (AP) — Joshua Jefferson and Tamin Lipsey scored 23 points apiece and Iowa State pulled away late in the first half of a win over Stonehill.

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Jefferson added nine rebounds, seven assists and four steals in a terrific all-around performance that helped the Cyclones (4-0) to another lopsided victory. Their average winning margin is 33.3 points per game.

Iowa State missed all seven of its 3-point attempts in the first half but went 5 of 8 to start the second and put away the game. The Cyclones reeled off a 15-0 run and held Stonehill to one field goal over eight minutes spanning halftime. Back-to-back 3s by Killyan Toure and Jefferson made it 48-27, and it was a 30-point game when Jamarion Batemon hit a 3 midway through the second half.

Milan Momcilovic scored 16 points for Iowa State, and Lipsey added six rebounds, four assists and two steals.

NO. 20 TENNESSEE 91, RICE 66

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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Felix Okpara had 20 points and eight rebounds, Nate Ament added 19 points and 10 boards, and Tennessee cruised to a victory over Rice despite an injury to forward J.P. Estrella.

The 6-foot-11 redshirt sophomore went down in a scrum of bodies in the first half and appeared to hurt his left knee.

Estrella entered averaging 17.3 points and 8.7 rebounds per game this season. He missed most of last season with a foot injury.

Ja’Kobi Gillespie finished with 17 points and eight assists for the Volunteers (4-0). Ethan Berg scored 11.

Nick Anderson led the Owls (2-3) with 19 points. Cam Carroll scored 14 and Jalen Smith had 10.

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Gillespie had 10 points at halftime to lead the Vols to a 39-26 advantage.

NO. 24 WISCONSIN 94, SIU EDWARDSVILLE 69

MADISON, Wisc. (AP) — John Blackwell scored 24 points, Nick Boyd added 22 and Wisconsin closed a four-game, season-opening homestand by defeating SIU Edwardsville.

Wisconsin has scored at least 85 points in each of its first four games for the first time since the 1975-76 season. Blackwell and Boyd led the way, with Blackwell going 5 of 6 on 3-point attempts and Boyd making 4 of 7.

Wisconsin plays its next three games away from Kohl Center as its schedule gets tougher. The Badgers have started 4-0 for the second straight year and the third time in four seasons.

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Austin Rapp scored seven of his 15 points during a 16-0 run early in the second half that broke open a close game. Rapp also had eight rebounds to match Nolan Winter for the team lead.

Wisconsin committed just four turnovers.

NO. 25 NC STATE 85, VCU 79

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Darrion Williams scored 28 points, Tre Holloman added 25 and North Carolina State marked its first appearance in the national rankings this season by beating VCU.

Matt Able had 12 points off the bench and Ven-Allen Lubin provided 11 points and nine rebounds for the Wolfpack (4-0), who overcame 17 turnovers.

Holloman made six free throws in the final 18 seconds to help N.C. State win its first November game in the Top 25 in 13 years.

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Barry Evans had 18 points and Jadrian Tracey scored 16, including four 3-pointers, for the Rams (2-2). Lazar Djokovic finished with 13.

N.C. State coach Will Wade spent two seasons (2015-17) as VCU’s coach, and his former team refused to fade away.

The Wolfpack are 4-0 for the fourth consecutive season after winning for the 70th time in their last 74 nonconference home games.

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Braden Huff scored 22 points on 11-for-13 shooting and Davis Fogle had a career-high 19 points as No. 13 Gonzaga beat Southern Utah 122-50 on Monday night.

Mario Saint-Supery added 16 points, seven assists and six steals in his first career start for the Bulldogs (5-0), who secured the second-largest scoring output and margin of victory in program history. Graham Ike and Adam Miller had 13 points apiece for Gonzaga.

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Elijah Duval scored 10 points to lead Southern Utah (1-4) as it fell to its worst start under third-year coach Rob Jeter. The Thunderbirds struggled offensively all night, finishing with more turnovers (23) than made field goals (18).

Gonzaga jumped out to a 17-2 lead behind smothering defense and transition scoring. One early sequence began with Ike blocking a layup attempt from Zach Bell, nearly pinning the ball against the backboard. It ended with Adam Miller hoisting a lob to Tyon Grant-Foster for a two-handed finish.

On another wild fastbreak run, Mario Saint-Supery intercepted a pass in the backcourt and threw a lob to Grant-Foster, who missed the dunk, but Miller cleaned it up with a tip-in to make it 36-14.

As the half was winding down, Saint-Supery poked the ball away from Duval for his fifth steal. It set up a layup from Grant-Foster on the other end as Gonzaga went into halftime with a 59–27 lead.

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Meanwhile, the Thunderbirds struggled to handle Gonzaga’s ball pressure, finishing the half with 14 turnovers and 10 made field goals.

Miller scored Gonzaga’s first bucket of the second half on a transition 3 from the top of the key, and the Bulldogs kept rolling from there. Huff continued the surge by scoring 10 points in the next five minutes to push the lead to 79-37, one which Gonzaga never relinquished.

Up next

Southern Utah: At Washington State on Wednesday.

Gonzaga: Faces Alabama in Las Vegas on Monday.

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Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP News mobile app). AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball

Democrats in Utah are abuzz this week after a judge adopted a map for the 2026 congressional elections that creates a district that leans their way for the first time in decades.

This new district, built around the northern portion of Salt Lake County, does indeed include the bluest portions of a red state. And depending on which elections from the past decade are included in the analysis, it favors Democrats by somewhere between 13 points and 17 points.

But there have actually been several electoral anomalies in Utah over that span, so it’s best to look at a range, rather than a precise number.

Consider the gubernatorial election last year. If we just approach it as Republican Spencer Cox vs. Democrat Brian King, then King got 11.5 percent more of the vote than Cox inside the new district. But remember the race also had former Rep. Phil Lyman running a write-in campaign. Ten percent of voters in that election cast a ballot for someone other than Cox or King, most of them for Cox’s challenger from the right — Lyman.

So that either counts as an 11.5 percentage point victory for the Democrat or something closer to 1.5 percentage points, considering.

Next, let’s look at the President Donald Trump factor.

Trump has been on the presidential ballot three times in Utah in the last decade — 2024, 2020 and 2016. By Republican standards in Utah, he did poorly, losing the district by between 21 and 24 percentage points.

He never cracked 60% statewide. That’s historically bad for a Republican in Utah. In races without a significant third-party candidate, Trump’s 2024 and 2020 performances were the worst for a Republican presidential candidate since Barry Goldwater lost to Lyndon Johnson in 1964.

And looking at races where there was a major third-party candidate on Utahns’ ballot — Evan McMullin in 2016, H. Ross Perot twice in the 1990s, and segregationist Gov. George Wallace in 1968 — the only GOP showing that compares to Trump’s 46% in 2016 is George H.W. Bush’s 43% the first time Perot ran in 1992.

Those races change the perceived lean in a big and questionable way.

Speaking of McMullin, he also is responsible for another strange Utah election that complicates the math. In 2022, Democrats opted not to nominate a candidate to run against U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, instead tossing their support behind McMullin.

The independent dominated in precincts that now make up the new congressional district, beating Lee by nearly 32 percentage points. But how many of those are actual Democrats? It’s hard to tell.

In the congressional races that same election, Democratic candidates received 52% of the vote, while McMullin got 57% — meaning there was crossover, but it wasn’t massive.

There is one more flukey election in 2016.

That year, in the race for attorney general, the Democratic candidate dropped out before Election Day, and Republican Sean Reyes won the area now part of the new district by just over two percentage points — the only Republican in a decade to do so. But how do we consider the results in a race without a real opponent?

Based on Salt Lake County results from 2024, eight out of 10 of the “other” votes cast in the gubernatorial election were write-ins, presumably for Phil Lyman. Those are votes cast by people who thought Cox was not conservative enough, meaning they aren’t likely to vote for a Democrat in 2026. Considering that, lowering King’s 11.5 percentage point win by those eight points results in a 3.5 percentage point win for Democrats.

Along those lines, based on the larger county-wide voting patterns, reducing McMullin’s victory in those precincts by 5 percentage points to about 27 points — which falls roughly in line with Trump’s losses.

Making those two adjustments, and keeping the 2016 attorney general race, results in a Democratic advantage is 12.4 percentage points.

If you leave the Cox defeat and the McMullin win in the district unadjusted and only go back as far as the 2018 elections, a Democrat has a 17-point advantage.

That is not a cakewalk. Republicans have had similar advantages in districts and lost. Still, it is considerable and the kind of daylight that Utah Democrats have not seen in decades.

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