DeBrusk scores late in OT to give Canucks 2-1 win over Sharks

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Jake DeBrusk scored with 17.6 seconds left on the clock in overtime and the Vancouver Canucks beat the struggling San Jose Sharks 2-1 on Monday night.

Linus Karlsson also scored for Vancouver, and Nikita Tolopilo stopped 15 shots in his NHL debut.

Macklin Celebrini got his 25th goal of the season for San Jose, which lost its 10th straight (0-7-3). Alexandar Georgiev made 35 saves.

In the extra period, Brock Boeser sent a shot over the San Jose net and the puck bounced back to DeBrusk, who popped it in for his 28th goal of the season with just seconds left on the game clock.

Celebrini gave the Sharks a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal 4:20 into the second period, and Karlsson tied the score at 9:03 of the third with his third goal.

Both teams were without a number of its top players, including Vancouver center Elias Pettersson and San Jose defenseman Mario Ferraro.

Canucks: Vancouver had ample scoring chances in the first period, including a four-minute power play where they peppered Georgiev with seven shots. Vancouver was 0 for 5 with the man advantage.

Sharks: After losing more bodies to injury in the loss to Calgary on Sunday, San Jose called in reinforcements for this game. Left wing Danil Gushchin, and defensemen Luca Cagnoni and Jimmy Schuldt all played after joining the team in Vancouver.

With Victor Mancini in the box for interference, Celebrini unleashed a rocket from the faceoff dot, sending the puck pinging in off the crossbar early in the second period to give the Sharks a 1-0 lead.

The Sharks have given up 48 goals during their 10-game losing skid.

Sharks host Edmonton on Wednesday in season finale, and Canucks host Vegas to end season.

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

San Jose Sharks goaltender Alexandar Georgiev (40) stops Vancouver Canucks' Pius Suter (24) as Sharks' Timothy Liljegren (37) and Henry Thrun (3) watch during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Vancouver, British Columbia, Monday, April 14, 2025. (Ethan Cairns/The Canadian Press via AP)

Vancouver Canucks goaltender Nikita Tolopilo (60) prepares to stop San Jose Sharks' Carl Grundstrom (91) as Canucks' Quinn Hughes (43) watch during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Vancouver, British Columbia, Monday, April 14, 2025. (Ethan Cairns/The Canadian Press via AP)

San Jose Sharks' William Eklund (72) and Vancouver Canucks' Quinn Hughes (43) vie for the puck during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Vancouver, British Columbia, Monday, April 14, 2025. (Ethan Cairns/The Canadian Press via AP)

Vancouver Canucks goaltender Nikita Tolopilo, right, stops San Jose Sharks' William Eklund, left, during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Vancouver, British Columbia, Monday, April 14, 2025. (Ethan Cairns/The Canadian Press via AP)

Vancouver Canucks' Ty Mueller (39) and San Jose Sharks' Carl Grundstrom (91) vie for the puck during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Vancouver, British Columbia, Monday, April 14, 2025. (Ethan Cairns/The Canadian Press via AP)

Vancouver Canucks goaltender Nikita Tolopilo watches the puck during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the San Jose Sharks in Vancouver, British Columbia, Monday, April 14, 2025. (Ethan Cairns/The Canadian Press via AP)

San Jose Sharks' Nikolai Kovalenko (15) watches as Macklin Celebrini, not seen, scores on Vancouver Canucks goaltender Nikita Tolopilo (60) during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Vancouver, British Columbia, Monday, April 14, 2025. (Ethan Cairns/The Canadian Press via AP)

San Jose Sharks' Macklin Celebrini (71) celebrates after his goal against the Vancouver Canucks with teammates Nikolai Kovalenko (15), Luca Cagnoni (42) and Tyler Toffoli (73) during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Vancouver, British Columbia, Monday, April 14, 2025. (Ethan Cairns/The Canadian Press via AP)

Vancouver Canucks goaltender Nikita Tolopilo (60) celebrates with his teammates after defeating the San Jose Sharks in overtime in an NHL hockey game in Vancouver, British Columbia, Monday, April 14, 2025. (Ethan Cairns/The Canadian Press via AP)

Vancouver Canucks goaltender Nikita Tolopilo (60) celebrates with his teammates after defeating the San Jose Sharks in overtime in an NHL hockey game in Vancouver, British Columbia, Monday, April 14, 2025. (Ethan Cairns/The Canadian Press via AP)

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Venezuelans on Saturday were scrambling to understand who is in charge of their country after a U.S. military operation that captured President Nicolás Maduro.

President Donald Trump delivered a shocking pick: The United States, perhaps in coordination with one of Maduro's most trusted aides.

Delcy Rodríguez has served as Maduro's vice president since 2018, overseeing much of Venezuela's oil-dependent economy as well as its feared intelligence service. But she is someone the Trump administration apparently is willing to work with, at least for now.

“She’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again,” Trump told reporters of Rodríguez, who faced U.S. sanctions during Trump’s first administration for her role in undermining Venezuelan democracy.

In a major snub, Trump said opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who was awarded last year's Nobel Peace Prize, didn't have the support to run the country.

Trump said Rodríguez had a long conversation with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in which Trump claimed she said, “‘We’ll do whatever you need.’”

“I think she was quite gracious,” Trump added. “We can’t take a chance that somebody else takes over Venezuela that doesn’t have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind.”

Rodríguez tried to project strength and unity among the ruling party's many factions, downplaying any hint of betrayal. In remarks on state TV, she demanded the immediate release of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and denounced the U.S. operation as a flagrant violation of the United Nations charter.

“There is only one president in this country, and his name is Nicolás Maduro," Rodríguez said, surrounded by top civilian officials and military commanders.

There was no immediate sign that the U.S. was running Venezuela.

“What will happen tomorrow? What will happen in the next hour? Nobody knows,” Caracas resident Juan Pablo Petrone said.

Trump indicated that Rodríguez had been sworn in already as president of Venezuela, per the transfer of power outlined in the constitution. However, state television has not broadcast any swearing-in ceremony.

In her televised address, Rodríguez did not declare herself acting president or mention a political transition. A ticker at the bottom of the screen identified her as the vice president. She gave no sign that she would be cooperating with the U.S.

“What is being done to Venezuela is an atrocity that violates international law,” she said. “History and justice will make the extremists who promoted this armed aggression pay.”

The Venezuelan constitution also says a new election must be called within a month in the event of the president’s absence.

But experts have been debating whether the succession scenario would apply here, given the government’s lack of popular legitimacy and the extraordinary U.S. military intervention.

Venezuelan military officials were quick to project defiance in video messages.

“They have attacked us but will not break us,” said Defense Minister Gen. Vladimir Padrino López, dressed in fatigues.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello appeared on state TV in a helmet and flak jacket, urging Venezuelans to “trust in the political leadership and military” and “get out on the streets” to defend the country’s sovereignty.

“These rats attacked and they will regret what they did,” he said of the U.S.

A lawyer educated in Britain and France, Rodríguez has a long history of representing the revolution started by the late Hugo Chávez on the world stage.

She and her brother, Jorge Rodríguez, head of the Maduro-controlled National Assembly, have strong leftist credentials born from tragedy. Their father was a socialist leader who died in police custody in the 1970s, a crime that shook many activists of the era, including a young Maduro.

Unlike many in Maduro’s inner circle, the Rodríguez siblings have avoided criminal indictment in the U.S. Delcy Rodríguez has developed strong ties with Republicans in the oil industry and on Wall Street who balked at the notion of U.S.-led regime change.

Among her past interlocutors was Blackwater founder Erik Prince and, more recently, Richard Grenell, a Trump special envoy who tried to negotiate a deal with Maduro for greater U.S. influence in Venezuela.

Fluent in English, Rodríguez is sometimes portrayed as a well-educated moderate in contrast to the military hardliners who took up arms with Chávez against Venezuela's democratically elected president in the 1990s.

Many of them, especially Cabello, are wanted in the U.S. on drug trafficking charges and stand accused of serious human rights abuses. But they continue to hold sway over the armed forces, the traditional arbiter of political disputes in Venezuela.

That presents major challenges to Rodríguez asserting authority. But experts say that Venezuela’s power brokers have long had a habit of closing ranks behind their leaders.

“These leaders have all seen the value of staying united. Cabello has always taken a second seat or third seat, knowing that his fate is tied up with Maduro’s, and now he very well might do that again,” said David Smilde, a sociology professor at Tulane University who has conducted research into Venezuela's political dynamics over the past three decades.

“A lot depends on what happened last night, which officials were taken out, what the state of the military looks like now," Smilde said. "If it doesn’t have much firepower anymore, they’re more vulnerable and diminished and it will be easier for her to gain control.”

Shortly before Trump's press conference, Machado, the opposition leader, called on her ally Edmundo González — a retired diplomat widely considered to have won the country’s disputed 2024 presidential election — to “immediately assume his constitutional mandate and be recognized as commander-in-chief."

In an triumphant statement, Machado promised that her movement would “restore order, free political prisoners, build an exceptional country and bring our children back home.”

She added: “Today we are prepared to assert our mandate and take power."

Asked about Machado, Trump was blunt: “I think it would be very tough for (Machado) to be the leader," he said.

“She doesn’t have the support or respect within the country.”

Venezuelans expressed shock, with many speculating on social media that Trump had mixed up the two women's names. Machado has not responded to Trump's remarks.

Goodman reported from Miami.

Venezuelan Vice President and Oil Minister Delcy Rodriguez gives a press conference at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, March 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)

A supporter of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro stands on a median strip waving a national flag in 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/Ariana Cubillos)