DALLAS (AP) — Wyatt Johnston saw just a little opening and figured why not take a shot on the opening shift.
That snap decision became the quickest goal ever to open a playoff game for the Dallas Stars, who got that score from Johnston only 9 seconds in and went on to a 6-2 win in Game 5 of their first-round series against the Colorado Avalanche on Monday night.
“Got lucky,” Johnston said. “I’s the biggest cliché. I hate to say it, but when you get pucks on net good things happen. Sometimes you see something, and you try it. You never know.”
That was the first goal this postseason for the 21-year-old Johnston, who added another one and also had an assist as the Stars took a 3-2 series lead.
Game 6 is Thursday night in Colorado, where the Stars wrapped up their second-round series against the Avs last season.
Johnston’s record-setting starter goal came on a shot from the immediate left of the net. The 21-year-old forward already in his 43rd career playoff game was skating toward the back wall and passing the red line when he took the shot that ricocheted off goalie Mackenzie Blackwood.
“It was nice to throw something on net and go in,” Johnston said.
Blackwood saw the puck coming and thought it was in a good spot — “It just found a fluky little hole,” he said.
The previous fastest goal for the Stars to open a playoff game was Jeff Halpern scoring 24 seconds into Game 2 of a first-round series against Vancouver on April 13, 2007.
Only seven other players in NHL history have scored within the first 9 seconds of a playoff game. The record was set by Don Kozak for the Los Angeles Kings, when he scored 6 seconds into a quarterfinals game against Boston on April 17, 1977.
Johnston got his assist in the final minute of the first period, which came on Thomas Harley’s goal that Blackwood initially blocked with his right arm. But the puck popped up in the air and came down behind the goalie, bouncing off his back and into the net.
“I’ve had bad goals go in before. It sucks that there were two in the first period in a playoff game,” Blackwood said. "That’s unfortunate, but there’s not much you can do about it now. You just try and reset.”
AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
Dallas Stars center Wyatt Johnston (53) celebrates after scoring during the second period of Game 5 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series against the Colorado Avalanche in Dallas, Monday, April 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)
Colorado Avalanche goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood (39) stops a shot during a first-round NHL hockey playoff game against the Dallas Stars in Dallas, Monday, April 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)
Dallas Stars center Wyatt Johnston skates after scoring during the first period of Game 5 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series against the Colorado Avalanche in Dallas, Monday, April 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)
Dallas Stars left wing Jamie Benn, left, celebrates with center Wyatt Johnston, right, after Johnston scored during the first period of Game 5 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series against the Colorado Avalanche in Dallas, Monday, April 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)
The White House has released President Donald Trump's schedule for Monday. He will hold a press conference with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and then begin a weeklong trip to the Middle East. Trump will visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, though his most pressing regional challenges concern two other countries: Israel and Iran.
Here's the Latest:
President Donald Trump says he will likely speak with China’s leader Xi Jinping “maybe at the end of the week.”
That’s after negotiators from the U.S. and China meeting in Switzerland this weekend agreed to reduce tariffs for 90 days of talks. The import taxes on China imposed by the U.S. would still remain higher than when Trump took office at 30%.
Trump told reporters on Monday that the reduced tariff rates didn’t include tariffs on autos, steel and aluminum as well as the potentially upcoming import taxes on pharmaceutical drugs.
Trump said he also spoke with Apple CEO Tim Cook on Monday and he expected the tech company to make additional commitments to invest in domestic production.
Trump said the talks would be great for “unification and peace.”
Trump says the countries ended hostilities for a lot of reasons “but trade is a big one.”
Speaking at the White House on Monday, the president said the U.S. is already negotiating a trade deal with India and will soon start negotiating with Pakistan.
India and Pakistan reached an understanding to stop all military actions on land, in the air and at the sea Saturday in a U.S.-brokered ceasefire to stop the escalating hostilities between the two nuclear-armed rivals that threatened regional peace.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent praised the progress made in in trade talks with Chinese officials over the weekend and said he expects another meeting in a few weeks.
U.S. and China announced a 90-day pause on tariffs after the weekend talks in Geneva.
“We had a plan, we had a process and now what we have with the Chinese is a mechanism to avoid an upward tariff pressure like we did last time,” Bessent said on CNBC.
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller says the Trump administration is looking for ways to expand its legal power to deport migrants who are in the United States illegally.
To achieve that, he says the administration is “actively looking at” suspending habeas corpus, the constitutional right for people to legally challenge their detention by the government.
Such a move would be aimed at migrants as part of the Republican president’s broader crackdown at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“The Constitution is clear, and that of course is the supreme law of the land, that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in a time of invasion,” Miller told reporters outside the White House on Friday.
“So, I would say that’s an option we’re actively looking at,” Miller said. “Look, a lot of it depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not.”
Trump’s plan to change the pricing model for some medications is already facing fierce criticism from the pharmaceutical industry before he’s even signed the executive order set for Monday that, if implemented, could lower the cost of some drugs.
Trump has promised that his plan — which is likely to tie the price of medications covered by Medicare and administered in a doctor’s office to the lowest price paid by other countries — will significantly lower drug costs.
But the nation’s leading pharmaceutical lobby on Sunday pushed back, calling it a “bad deal” for American patients. Drugmakers have long argued that any threats to their profits could impact the research they do to develop new drugs.
The White House has released President Donald Trump's schedule for Monday. Trump is scheduled to hold a press conference with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the White House at 9:30 a.m. Trump says he’ll sign an executive order that, if implemented, could bring down the costs of some medications — reviving a failed effort from his first term on an issue he’s talked up since even before becoming president.
Shortly after, Trump will begin his weeklong trip to the Middle East. Trump will visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, though his most pressing regional challenges concern two other countries: Israel and Iran.
President Donald Trump is ready to accept a luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet as a gift from the ruling family of Qatar during his trip to the Middle East this coming week, and U.S. officials say it could be converted into a potential presidential aircraft.
The Qatari government said a final decision hadn’t been made. Still, Trump defended the idea — what would amount to a president accepting an astonishingly valuable gift from a foreign government — as a fiscally smart move for the country.
FILE - President Donald Trump speaks with reporters as he signs executive orders in the Oval Office at the White House, Feb. 10, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, file)
