Nicholas Robertson part of key goals for Toronto in 5-3 win over Dallas and his older brother

DALLAS (AP) — Nicholas Robertson scored the go-ahead goal and assisted on another against his older brother's team, William Nylander scored twice and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Dallas Stars 5-3 on Wednesday night.

Joseph Woll stopped 38 shots for the Atlantic Division-leading Maple Leafs, who won for the fourth time in five games.

Robertson made it 3-2 with an unassisted goal at 5:31 of the second period, only 16 seconds after Nylander's first goal tied the game. The 23-year-old Robertson assisted on Bobby McMann's goal later in the second, when 25-year-old Jason Robertson was on the ice for the Stars.

McMann's goal was the fourth for Toronto in its first eight shots against Jake Oettinger, who on his 26th birthday lost for only the second time in 14 starts this season at the American Airlines Center. Casey DeSmith replaced him in net to start the third period.

Evgenii Dadonov and Sam Steel scored for Dallas. Steel's shot over Woll's right shoulder made it 1-0 only 5:14 into the game, but Toronto tied it on Max Domi's score 59 seconds later.

Maple Leafs: Woll is 9-4 in his 13 games this season, after being 12-11 in 23 starts last season.

Stars: Jamie Benn played in his 1,143th career game, one more than Hockey Hall of Famer Mike Modano for the most for the Stars since moving to Dallas in 1993. Modano’s franchise-most 1,459 games include 317 in four years before the team relocated from Minnesota.

Nylander's 20th goal of the season was an empty-netter with 1:43 left, only 33 seconds after Colin Blackwell scored when Dallas had an extra attacker on the ice.

The Stars were 0 for 4 on the power play.

Toronto plays Friday at Buffalo. The Stars wrap up their season-long, six-game homestand Friday against the New York Rangers.

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

Dallas Stars center Colin Blackwell (15) tries to get past Toronto Maple Leafs center David Kampf (64) during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Dallas, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Ainsworth)

Toronto Maple Leafs left wing Nicholas Robertson (89) celebrates his goal against the Dallas Stars with defenseman Simon Benoit (2) during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Dallas, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Ainsworth)

Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews (34) tries to get the puck by Dallas Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen (4) during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Dallas, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Ainsworth)

Dallas Stars left wing Mason Marchment (27) and Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Chris Tanev (8) fight for the puck during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Dallas, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Ainsworth)

Dallas Stars defenseman Brendan Smith (2) has a shot defended by Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll (60) during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Dallas, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Ainsworth)

Dallas Stars left wing Jason Robertson (21) and Toronto Maple Leafs left wing Nicholas Robertson (89) pose for a photo prior to an NHL hockey game in Dallas, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Ainsworth)

Dallas Stars left wing Jamie Benn (14) takes a shot against the Toronto Maple Leafs during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Dallas, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Ainsworth)

Dallas Stars left wing Jamie Benn (14) tries to get the puck from Toronto Maple Leafs left wing Nicholas Robertson (89) during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Dallas, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Ainsworth)

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a lightning military strike, the U.S. captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and spirited them out of the country to face justice in the United States.

Now President Donald Trump says the U.S. is “going to run” Venezuela until a transition of power can take place, but it's not clear what that will mean on the ground in the South American country.

The overnight operation left Venezuela reeling, with its leadership uncertain and details of casualties and the impact on its military still to emerge. Much is still unknown about how the U.S. ouster of Maduro will ricochet across the country and the region.

Here’s what we know — and what we don’t.

Explosions rang out and low-flying aircraft swept through Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, early Saturday. At least seven blasts were heard in an attack that lasted less than 30 minutes. The targets appeared to include military infrastructure.

Venezuelan ruling party leader Nahum Fernández said Maduro and Flores were captured at their home within the Ft. Tiuna military installation outside Caracas.

Venezuelan officials said people had been killed, but the scale of casualties was unclear.

The attack followed months of escalating pressure by the Trump administration, which has built up naval forces in the waters off South America and since early September has carried out deadly strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean. Late last month, the CIA carried out a drone strike at a docking area alleged to have been used by drug cartels.

Trump said during a news conference Saturday the U.S. would run the country and gestured to officials arrayed behind him, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and said they’d be the ones doing it “for a period of time.”

Trump claimed the American presence was already in place, although across Venezuela's capital there were no signs that the U.S. had taken control of the government or military forces.

Trump claimed that Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez had been sworn in as president shortly before he spoke to reporters and added she had spoken with Rubio.

“She is essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again. Very simple,” Trump said.

Rodriquez made no mention of talking to Rubio or being sworn in during a televised address after Trump's news conference.

Instead, she demanded the U.S. free Maduro and called him the country’s rightful leader. Rodriquez left open the door for dialogue with the U.S., while seeking to calm ruling party supporters.

“Here, we have a government with clarity, and I repeat and repeat again … we are willing to have respectful relations,” she said, referring to the Trump administration. “It is the only thing we will accept for a type of relationship after having attacked (Venezuela).”

Armed individuals and uniformed members of a civilian militia took to the streets of a Caracas neighborhood long considered a stronghold of the ruling party. But in other areas of the city, the streets remained empty hours after the attack. Parts of the city remained without power, but vehicles moved freely.

Trump offered no details on what U.S. leadership in Venezuela would mean or specify whether it would involve more military involvement.

The State Department did not immediately respond to questions about how the U.S. would run Venezuela, what authority it would use to administer it or whether it would involve any American personnel — either civilian or military — on the ground in Caracas or other areas of Venezuela.

Trump mentioned the country's oil infrastructure repeatedly during the news conference. He suggested there would be a substantial U.S. role in Venezuela's oil industry, saying that U.S. oil companies would go in and fix the broken infrastructure.

And Trump said the U.S. would use revenues from oil sales to pay for running the country.

“We’re going to get reimbursed for everything that we spend,” he said.

According to an indictment made public Saturday, Maduro is charged alongside his wife, his son and three others. Maduro is indicted on four counts: narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.

Authorities allege powerful and violent drug trafficking organizations, such as the Sinaloa Cartel and Tren de Aragua gang, worked directly with the Venezuelan government and then sent profits to high-ranking officials who helped and protected them in exchange.

It was not immediately clear when Maduro and his wife would make their first court appearance in New York or where they would be detained once in the U.S.

Trump gave some details of the operation during a Saturday morning interview on “Fox and Friends," and he and Caine went into more depth during the news conference.

Trump said a few U.S. members of the operation were injured but he believed no one was killed.

He said Maduro was “highly guarded” in a presidential palace akin to a “fortress” and he tried to get to a safe room but wasn’t able to get there in time.

Trump said U.S. forces practiced the operation ahead of time on a replica building, and the U.S. turned off “almost all of the lights in Caracas,” although he didn’t detail how they accomplished that.

Caine said the mission had been “meticulously planned” for months, relying on work by the U.S. intelligence community to find Maduro and detail how he moved, lived, ate and what he wore.

The mission involved more than 150 aircraft launched across the Western Hemisphere, Caine said. Helicopters came under fire as they approached “the target area,” he said, and responded with “overwhelming force.”

The U.S. does not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, and the legal implications of the strike under U.S. law were not immediately clear.

The Trump administration maintains that Maduro is not the legitimate leader of Venezuela and claims he has effectively turned Venezuela into a criminal enterprise at the service of drug traffickers and terrorist groups.

Mike Lee, a U.S. senator from Utah, said on X that the action “likely falls within the president’s inherent authority under Article II of the Constitution to protect U.S. personnel from an actual or imminent attack.”

But some Democrats were more critical.

Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, said in a statement, “President Trump’s unauthorized military attack on Venezuela to arrest Maduro — however terrible he is — is a sickening return to a day when the United States asserted the right to dominate the internal political affairs of all nations in the Western Hemisphere.”

Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado had intended to run against Maduro in the 2024 presidential election, but the government barred her from running for office. She went into hiding and wasn't seen for nearly a year.

Trump said Saturday that he hadn't been in touch with Machado and said it would be “very tough” for her to lead Venezuela.

“She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country. She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect,” Trump said.

Lawless reported from London. Associated Press Writer Danica Kirka in London contributed to this story.

President Donald Trump speaks at his Mar-a-Lago club, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

FILE - President Nicolas Maduro acknowledges supporters alongside first lady Cilia Flores during his closing election campaign rally in Caracas, Venezuela, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File)

Pro-government armed civilians patrol in La Guaira, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that President Nicolás Maduro had been captured and flown out of the country. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Supporters of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro embrace in downtown Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Maduro had been captured and flown out of the country. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

Men watch smoke rising from a dock after explosions were heard at La Guaira port, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Smoke raises at La Carlota airport after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)