Golden Knights beat Maple Leafs 6-3 in Marner’s emotional Toronto return

TORONTO (AP) — Mark Stone had two goals and an assist and the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Maple Leafs 6-3 on Friday night in Mitch Marner’s emotional return to Toronto.

Jack Eichel Pavel Dorofeyev, Braeden Bowman and Keegan Kolesar also scored for Vegas. Adin Hill made 18 saves, and Ivan Barbashev had three assists.

Marner, who played nine seasons with the Maple Leafs before his long march out the door ended last summer, was booed every time he touched the puck.

John Tavares, Scott Laughton and Bobby McMann scored for Toronto. Anthony Stolarz stopped 25 shots in his return from an upper-body injury.

Playing in the second of a back-to-back, Vegas won for the first time in three contests following a seven-game winning streak, including a 6-5 overtime victory over the Maple Leafs last week.

Toronto has dropped three in a row and five of six.

Rasmus Andersson made his debut for Vegas after the blueliner was acquired from Calgary on Sunday.

Golden Knights: At Ottawa on Sunday.

Maple Leafs: Host Colorado on Sunday.

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

Vegas Golden Knights' Mitch Marner (93) tries a wrap around on Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Anthony Stolarz (41) during third period NHL hockey action in Toronto on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

Vegas Golden Knights Rasmus Andersson (4) battles for the puck with Toronto Maple Leafs' Jake McCabe (22) during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Toronto on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

Vegas Golden Knights' Keegan Kolesar (55) scores against Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Anthony Stolarz (41) during first-period NHL hockey game action in Toronto, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube, center top, with a black eye and stitches from a gym incident, looks on during first-period NHL hockey game action against the Vegas Golden Knights in Toronto, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

Vegas Golden Knights' Shea Theodore (27), Pavel Dorofeyev (16) and Mitch Marner (93) celebrate a goal against the Toronto Maple Leafs during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Toronto on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

Vegas Golden Knights' Jack Eichel (9), Noah Hanifin (15) and Mark Stone (61) celebrate after a goal against the Toronto Maple Leafs during third-period NHL hockey game action in Toronto, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

A Connecticut judge on Friday dismissed criminal charges against three current and former New Haven police officers who were accused of mistreating prisoner Richard “Randy” Cox after he was paralyzed in the back of a police van in 2022.

Judge David Zagaja dropped the cases against Oscar Diaz, Jocelyn Lavandier and Luis Rivera after granting them a probation program that allows charges to be erased from defendants' records, saying their conduct was not malicious. Two other officers, Betsy Segui and Ronald Pressley, pleaded guilty last year to misdemeanor reckless endangerment and received no jail time.

Cox, 40, was left paralyzed from the chest down on June 19, 2022, when the police van, which had no seat belts, braked hard to avoid an accident, sending him head-first into a metal partition while his hands were cuffed behind his back. He had been arrested on charges of threatening a woman with a gun, which were later dismissed.

“I can’t move. I’m going to die like this. Please, please, please help me,” Cox said in the van minutes after being injured, according to police video. He later was found to have broken his neck.

Diaz, who was driving the van, brought Cox to the police department, where officers mocked Cox and accused him of being drunk and faking his injuries, according to surveillance and body-worn camera footage. Officers dragged Cox out of the van and around the police station before placing him in a holding cell before paramedics brought him to a hospital.

Before pulling him out of the van, Lavandier told Cox to move his leg and sit up, according to an internal affairs investigation report. Cox says “I can’t move” and Lavandier says “You’re not even trying.”

New Haven State's Attorney John P. Doyle Jr.'s office said prosecutors and Cox did not object to the charges being dismissed.

Defense lawyers said that while the officers were sympathetic to what happened to Cox, they did not cause his injuries or make them worse. The three officers whose cases were dismissed were scheduled to go on trial next month.

“We don’t think that there was sufficient evidence to prove her guilt or any wrongdoing,” said Lavandier's attorney, Dan Ford. "This is a negotiated settlement that avoids the risk of having go through the emotional toll of a trial.”

Rivera's lawyer, Raymond Hassett, called the decision to charge the officers “unjust and misplaced.”

“The actions of the Police Chief and City Mayor in targeting the officers were a misguided effort to deflect attention from the police department shortcomings in managing the department and ensuring proper protocols were in place and followed,” Hassett said in a statement.

Attorneys for Cox and Diaz did not immediately return phone and email messages Friday. Cox's lawyer, Louis Rubano, has said Cox and his family hoped the criminal cases would end quickly with plea bargains.

New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said city officials disagreed with the judge's decision to dismiss the charges.

“What happened to Randy was tragic and awful,” he said in a statement.

The case drew outrage from civil rights advocates including the NAACP, along with comparisons to the Freddie Gray case in Baltimore. Cox is Black, while all five officers who were arrested are Black or Hispanic. Gray, who also was Black, died in 2015 after he suffered a spinal injury while handcuffed and shackled in a Baltimore police van.

The case also led to reforms at the New Haven police department as well as a statewide seat belt requirement for prisoners.

In 2023, the city of New Haven agreed to settle a lawsuit by Cox for $45 million.

New Haven police fired Segui, Diaz, Lavandier and Rivera for violating police conduct policies, while Pressley retired and avoided an internal investigation. Diaz appealed his firing and got his job back. Segui lost the appeal of her firing, while appeals by Lavandier and Rivera remain pending.

FILE - This combo of photos provided by the Connecticut State Police, shows, from left, New Haven, Conn., police officers Oscar Diaz, Betsy Segui, Jocelyn Lavandier, Luis Rivera and Ronald Pressley. (Connecticut State Police via AP, File)

FILE - Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump takes part in a march for justice for Richard "Randy" Cox to the New Haven Police Department on July 8, 2022, in New Haven, Conn. (Arnold Gold/New Haven Register via AP, File)