Vilardi has 2 goals and 2 assists, Connor has goal and 2 assists as Jets beat Flames 5-2

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Gabriel Vilardi had two goals and two assists, Kyle Connor had a goal and two assists and the Winnipeg Jets beat the Calgary Flames 5-2 on Sunday.

Mark Scheifele had a goal and an assist, and Mason Appleton also scored for the Jets. Eric Comrie had 20 saves to help Winnipeg win its third straight and sixth in the last eight games.

MacKenzie Weegar and Nazem Kadri scored for the Flames, who had won three straight. Dan Fladar finished with 22 saves.

Connor got the Jets on the scoreboard first at 5:28 of the first period with his 27th goal of the season as he juked around a Flames defenseman, then deked Vladar and beat him with a backhander.

Appleton made it 2-0 midway through the second when he intercepted a pass in front of Vladar and fired the puck into the open net.

Weegar's power-play goal with just under 5 minutes remaining in the middle period pulled the Flames within one, but Vilardi restored the Jets' two-goal lead with 51 seconds to go in the second.

Vilardi had a power-play goal, his 22nd goal of the season, to make it 4-1 at 3:07 of the third. Kadri pulled the Flames back within two just 1:20 later, and Scheifele's power-play goal at 7:08 capped the scoring.

Flames: Calgary rebounded from a lackluster first period and outshot Winnipeg 12-10 and scored late in the second period, but lagged toward the end when Winnipeg scored in the final minute to take a 3-1 lead into the third.

Jets: Winnipeg pounced on the Flames in the first period, outshooting them 8-1 before they got two shots on goal during a late power play. They survived a pushback by the Flames in the second period, then took a 3-1 lead heading into the third.

After the Flames had pulled to 4-2, Scheifele scored on the power play to give Winnipeg a three-goal cushion.

Winnipeg’s league-leading power play went 2 for 2 against Calgary.

Flames host Washington on Tuesday, and Jets play at Montreal.

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

Calgary Flames goaltender Dan Vladar (80) makes a save against Winnipeg Jets' Rasmus Kupari (15) during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (Fred Greenslade/The Canadian Press via AP)

Winnipeg Jets' goaltender Eric Comrie (1) makes a save on Calgary Flames' Blake Coleman during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (Fred Greenslade/The Canadian Press via AP)

Calgary Flames' Jonathan Huberdeau (10) and Matt Coronato (27) celebrate the goal by MacKenzie Weeger on Winnipeg Jets goaltender Eric Comrie (1) during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (Fred Greenslade/The Canadian Press via AP)

Winnipeg Jets' Gabriel Vilardi (13) carries the puck past Calgary Flames' Jakob Pelletier during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (Fred Greenslade/The Canadian Press via AP)

Winnipeg Jets' Gabriel Vilardi scores on Calgary Flames goaltender Dan Vladar (80) during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (Fred Greenslade/The Canadian Press via AP)

Calgary Flames' Jakob Pelletier is checked by Winnipeg Jets' Mark Scheifele during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (Fred Greenslade/The Canadian Press via AP)

Winnipeg Jets' Kyle Connor (81) celebrates his goal against the Calgary Flames during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (Fred Greenslade/The Canadian Press via AP)

Winnipeg Jets' Gabriel Vilardi (13) celebrates his goal against the Calgary Flames during the third period of an NHL hockey game in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (Fred Greenslade/The Canadian Press via AP)

Winnipeg Jets Gabriel Vilardi scores on Calgary Flames goaltender Dan Vladar during the third period of an NHL hockey game in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (Fred Greenslade/The Canadian Press via AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A day after the audacious U.S. military operation in Venezuela, President Donald Trump on Sunday renewed his calls for an American takeover of the Danish territory of Greenland for the sake of U.S. security interests, while his top diplomat declared the communist government in Cuba is “in a lot of trouble.”

The comments from Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the ouster of Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro underscore that the U.S. administration is serious about taking a more expansive role in the Western Hemisphere.

With thinly veiled threats, Trump is rattling hemispheric friends and foes alike, spurring a pointed question around the globe: Who's next?

“It’s so strategic right now. Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place," Trump told reporters as he flew back to Washington from his home in Florida. "We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.”

Asked during an interview with The Atlantic earlier on Sunday what the U.S.-military action in Venezuela could portend for Greenland, Trump replied: “They are going to have to view it themselves. I really don’t know.”

Trump, in his administration's National Security Strategy published last month, laid out restoring “American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere” as a central guidepost for his second go-around in the White House.

Trump has also pointed to the 19th century Monroe Doctrine, which rejects European colonialism, as well as the Roosevelt Corollary — a justification invoked by the U.S. in supporting Panama’s secession from Colombia, which helped secure the Panama Canal Zone for the U.S. — as he's made his case for an assertive approach to American neighbors and beyond.

Trump has even quipped that some now refer to the fifth U.S. president's foundational document as the “Don-roe Doctrine.”

Saturday's dead-of-night operation by U.S. forces in Caracas and Trump’s comments on Sunday heightened concerns in Denmark, which has jurisdiction over the vast mineral-rich island of Greenland.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in a statement that Trump has "no right to annex" the territory. She also reminded Trump that Denmark already provides the United States, a fellow member of NATO, broad access to Greenland through existing security agreements.

“I would therefore strongly urge the U.S. to stop threatening a historically close ally and another country and people who have made it very clear that they are not for sale,” Frederiksen said.

Denmark on Sunday also signed onto a European Union statement underscoring that “the right of the Venezuelan people to determine their future must be respected” as Trump has vowed to “run” Venezuela and pressed the acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, to get in line.

Trump on Sunday mocked Denmark’s efforts at boosting Greenland’s national security posture, saying the Danes have added “one more dog sled” to the Arctic territory’s arsenal.

Greenlanders and Danes were further rankled by a social media post following the raid by a former Trump administration official turned podcaster, Katie Miller. The post shows an illustrated map of Greenland in the colors of the Stars and Stripes accompanied by the caption: “SOON."

“And yes, we expect full respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark,” Amb. Jesper Møller Sørensen, Denmark's chief envoy to Washington, said in a post responding to Miller, who is married to Trump's influential deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.

During his presidential transition and in the early months of his return to the White House, Trump repeatedly called for U.S. jurisdiction over Greenland, and has pointedly not ruled out military force to take control of the mineral-rich, strategically located Arctic island that belongs to an ally.

The issue had largely drifted out of the headlines in recent months. Then Trump put the spotlight back on Greenland less than two weeks ago when he said he would appoint Republican Gov. Jeff Landry as his special envoy to Greenland.

The Louisiana governor said in his volunteer position he would help Trump “make Greenland a part of the U.S.”

Meanwhile, concern simmered in Cuba, one of Venezuela’s most important allies and trading partners, as Rubio issued a new stern warning to the Cuban government. U.S.-Cuba relations have been hostile since the 1959 Cuban revolution.

Rubio, in an appearance on NBC's “Meet the Press,” said Cuban officials were with Maduro in Venezuela ahead of his capture.

“It was Cubans that guarded Maduro,” Rubio said. “He was not guarded by Venezuelan bodyguards. He had Cuban bodyguards.” The secretary of state added that Cuban bodyguards were also in charge of “internal intelligence” in Maduro’s government, including “who spies on who inside, to make sure there are no traitors.”

Trump said that “a lot” of Cuban guards tasked with protecting Maduro were killed in the operation. The Cuban government said in a statement read on state television on Sunday evening that 32 officers were killed in the U.S. military operation.

Trump also said that the Cuban economy, battered by years of a U.S. embargo, is in tatters and will slide further now with the ouster of Maduro, who provided the Caribbean island subsidized oil.

“It's going down,” Trump said of Cuba. “It's going down for the count.”

Cuban authorities called a rally in support of Venezuela’s government and railed against the U.S. military operation, writing in a statement: “All the nations of the region must remain alert, because the threat hangs over all of us.”

Rubio, a former Florida senator and son of Cuban immigrants, has long maintained Cuba is a dictatorship repressing its people.

“This is the Western Hemisphere. This is where we live — and we’re not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operation for adversaries, competitors, and rivals of the United States," Rubio said.

Cubans like 55-year-old biochemical laboratory worker Bárbara Rodríguez were following developments in Venezuela. She said she worried about what she described as an “aggression against a sovereign state.”

“It can happen in any country, it can happen right here. We have always been in the crosshairs,” Rodríguez said.

AP writers Andrea Rodriguez in Havana, Cuba, and Darlene Superville traveling aboard Air Force One contributed reporting.

In this photo released by the White House, President Donald Trump monitors U.S. military operations in Venezuela, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (Molly Riley/The White House via AP)