PITTSBURGH (AP) — John Klingberg capped off a frantic late rally by scoring his second goal of the game 2:57 into overtime to lift the San Jose Sharks to an improbable 6-5 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.
Klingberg’s seventh of the season off a feed from Macklin Celebrini gave the Sharks their first victory in the franchise’s 34-year history when trailing by four goals in the third.
San Jose trailed 5-1 with less than 14 minutes to go. Klingberg and William Eklund scored to get the Sharks back in it, and Celebrini and Tyler Toffoli beat Pittsburgh goalie Arturs Silovs with the goaltender pulled to force overtime.
Toffoli, whose tying goal came with 1:38 to play, finished with two goals and two assists. Celebrini had a goal and two assists to push his season point total to 44.
Yaroslav Askarov withstood a second-period deluge from Pittsburgh and finished with 38 saves as San Jose finished a five-game road trip at 3-2.
Sidney Crosby scored a goal and added an assist to move within two of Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux's franchise record for career points. Crosby beat Askarov in the first period for his 19th goal of the season and assisted on Bryan Rust's power-play goal in the second to push his career point total to 1,721.
Kevin Hayes, Rutger McGroarty and Anthony Mantha also scored for the Penguins. Rickard Rakell played 22:12 in his return from a 20-game absence due to a hand injury. Silovs stopped 26 shots as Pittsburgh dropped its fourth straight.
The Penguins fell to 1-8 in overtime and are winless through three games of a season-long five-game homestand. The first loss came against Anaheim on Tuesday when the Ducks forced overtime with one-tenth of a second left.
The loss marked the first time the Penguins blew a four-goal lead in the third period since March 10, 1976.
Sharks: Begin a three-game homestand on Tuesday against Calgary.
Penguins: Host Utah on Sunday.
AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL
San Jose Sharks defenseman John Klingberg reaches for the puck during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Dallas Stars, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuador declared Cuba’s ambassador, Basilio Antonio Gutiérrez, and his diplomatic staff “persona non grata” on Wednesday and gave them 48 hours to leave the South American country.
Ecuador’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that the measure was adopted within the framework of international diplomatic law, but didn't say why they were forcing the diplomats to leave. The Vienna Convention allows countries to declare diplomatic personnel a persona non grata without explanation.
Cuba's government strongly rejected the move in a statement on Wednesday night, calling it an “unfriendly and unprecedented act that significantly damages the historic relations of friendship and cooperation between both countries."
“This action also demonstrates the contempt of the current government of Ecuador for the diplomatic practices and courtesies observed by the international community,” wrote Cuba's Foreign Ministry.
The decision follows an executive order signed Tuesday by Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa in which he canceled Ecuadorian ambassador to Cuba José María Borja's diplomatic duties, also without explanation.
The same day, the United States and Ecuador announced they have begun joint military operations against organized crime groups in the Andean nation. Noboa has sought to position himself as a tough-on-crime leader in the wake of a surge of armed group violence in recent years.
The measure comes amid mounting pressure by U.S. President Donald Trump on Cuba, which intensified after a U.S. military operation deposed former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
Since, Trump has placed restrictions of oil sales to Cuba and said the government was “ready to fall.” Ecuador is one of the Trump administration’s allies and collaborators in the fight against drug trafficking and organized crime in the region.
Cuban authorities said Wednesday that it was “no coincidence” that Ecuador expelled its diplomatic staff at the same time the U.S. was asserting pressure on Cuba and other governments in the region, and ahead of a meeting of mostly right-wing Latin American leaders in Miami next week, which Noboa is slated to attend.
Ecuador and Cuba have maintained bilateral relations since 1960, which have ebbed and flowed with shifts in Ecuadorian politics.
The Wednesday decision has an “ideological component,” said Andrea Endara, coordinator of Political Science and International Relations at Casa Grande University. She said that Noboa “has aligned himself with the interests of the United States.”
The effective expulsion of the Cuban officials follows a number of diplomatic dramas between Ecuador and other Latin American nations in recent years. In 2024, Ecuadorian officials raided the Mexican embassy to arrest the former vice president taking shelter there. Experts said this was a blatant violation of international law, causing Mexico to cut off relations.
More recently, a trade war has broken out between Ecuador and neighboring Colombia, which Noboa’s government accused of not doing enough to crack down on crime on their shared border.
Follow AP’s Latin America coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
FILE - This is a general view of El Malecon in Havana, Cuba, seen Nov. 1971. (AP Photo/Beverley Reed, File)
