DALLAS (AP) — Thomas Harley scored at 2:05 of overtime, and the Dallas Stars matched their longest winning streak of the season at five games with a 4-3 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Monday night.
The goal came moments after Jake Oettinger made a pad save on Mark Schiefele's breakaway in a matchup of the top two goalies for Team USA in the second-to-last game before the break for the Milan Cortina Olympics. Oettinger and expected U.S. starter Connor Hellbuyck each stopped 24 shots.
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Dallas Stars left wing Jason Robertson skates after scoring a power play goal against the Winnipeg Jets during the second period of an NHL hockey game Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Winnipeg Jets center Gabriel Vilardi, right, celebrates his first period goal with center Cole Perfetti (91) during an NHL hockey game against the Dallas Stars Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck blocks a shot by the Dallas Stars during the first period of an NHL hockey game Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Dallas Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger (29) and defenseman Miro Heiskanen (4) attempt to stop a scoring shot by Winnipeg Jets center Gabriel Vilardi, not visible during the second period of an NHL hockey game Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Dallas Stars defenseman Thomas Harley (55) scores the game-winning goal on Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck during overtime in an NHL hockey game Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Mikko Rantanen put Dallas ahead 3-2 with 7:43 left in regulation on a weaving play through two defenders, but Logan Stanley got the Jets even on a 6-on-5 goal with 1:43 to go.
Jason Robertson had his 199th career goal and team-leading 31st this season and Nils Lundkvist scored as the Stars won their 18th one-goal game, tying the New York Islanders for the NHL lead.
Gabriel Vilardi and Cole Perfetti had a goal and an assist apiece for the Jets, and Scheifele had two assists.
Matt Duchene's four-game goal streak ended, but he had two assists along with Miro Heiskanen. His pass put Harley one-on-one with Hellebuyck, who was beaten by a backhand over his left pad.
The Jets went ahead 2-1 slightly more than three minutes after Robertson scored the game’s first goal early in the second period. Villardi’s 21st of the season came on a rebound, and Perfetti ended Winnipeg’s five-game streak without a power-play goal by scoring at 3:58 of the second.
The Stars pulled even when Nils Lundkvist poked a rebound past Hellebuyck on a shot from Duchene with five minutes left in the second period.
Both teams play their final game before the three-week Olympic break at home Wednesday night. The Jets face Montreal, and St. Louis visits the Stars.
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
Dallas Stars left wing Jason Robertson skates after scoring a power play goal against the Winnipeg Jets during the second period of an NHL hockey game Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Winnipeg Jets center Gabriel Vilardi, right, celebrates his first period goal with center Cole Perfetti (91) during an NHL hockey game against the Dallas Stars Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck blocks a shot by the Dallas Stars during the first period of an NHL hockey game Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Dallas Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger (29) and defenseman Miro Heiskanen (4) attempt to stop a scoring shot by Winnipeg Jets center Gabriel Vilardi, not visible during the second period of an NHL hockey game Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Dallas Stars defenseman Thomas Harley (55) scores the game-winning goal on Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck during overtime in an NHL hockey game Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
NEW YORK (AP) — This is not the run up to the midterm elections that Republicans wanted.
A year and a half after winning the White House by promising to lower costs and end wars, Donald Trump is a wartime president overseeing surging energy costs and an escalating overseas conflict that many in his own party do not like.
He offered little clarity to a nation eager for answers this week during a prime-time address from the White House, his first since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran more than a month ago, simultaneously suggesting that the war was ending and expanding.
“Thanks to the progress we’ve made, I can say tonight that we are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly, very shortly,” Trump said. “We’re going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks.”
Trump's comments come roughly six months before voters across the nation begin to cast ballots in elections that will decide control of Congress and key governorships for Trump’s final two years in office. For now, Republicans, who control all branches of government in Washington, are bracing for a painful political backlash.
“You’re looking at an ugly November,” warned veteran Republican pollster Neil Newhouse. “At a point in time when we need every break possible to hold the House and Senate, our edge is being chipped away.”
It’s hard to overstate how dramatically the political landscape has shifted.
At this time last year, many Republican leaders believed there was a path to preserve their narrow House majority and easily hold the Senate. Now they privately concede that the House is all but lost and Democrats have a realistic shot at taking the Senate.
Republicans are also struggling to coalesce around a clear midterm message on Iran.
The Republican National Committee has largely avoided the war in talking points issued to surrogates over the last month. The leaders of the party's campaign committees responsible for the House and Senate declined interview requests. Many vulnerable Republican candidates sidestep the issue, unwilling to defend or challenge Trump publicly.
The president remains deeply popular with Republican voters, and he has vocal supporters like Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
“That was the best speech I could’ve hoped for,” he wrote on social media after Trump's address on Wednesday evening. Graham said Trump “gave the American people a clear and coherent pathway forward.”
Trump made little effort to sell the conflict to Americans before the initial attack. Five weeks later, at least 13 U.S. service members have been killed and hundreds more injured. Thousands more troops have converged on the region, and the Pentagon requested $200 billion in new funding.
The Strait of Hormuz, a key passage for a fifth of the world’s oil, remains closed. The average price for a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. was $4.08 on Thursday, according to AAA, almost a full dollar higher than on President Joe Biden's last day in office.
On Wednesday, Trump insisted that gas prices would fall quickly once the war concluded but offered no solution for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Instead, he invited skeptical U.S. allies to do it themselves.
He insisted that the war would be worth it.
“This is a true investment in your grandchildren and your grandchildren’s future,” Trump said. “When it’s all over, the United States will be safer, stronger, more prosperous and greater than it has ever been before.”
Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican who was once among Trump's most vocal allies in Congress, lashed out against his Iran policy.
“I wanted so much for President Trump to put America First. That’s what I believed he would do. All I heard from his speech tonight was WAR WAR WAR,” she wrote on social media. “Nothing to lower the cost of living for Americans.”
About 6 in 10 U.S. adults say the U.S. military action in Iran has “gone too far,” according to AP-NORC polling from March. Roughly a third approve of how he’s handling Iran overall.
The possibility of sending U.S. forces into Iran also appears politically unpalatable.
About 6 in 10 adults are “strongly” or “somewhat” opposed to deploying U.S. troops on the ground to fight Iran. That includes about half of Republicans. Only about 1 in 10 favor deploying troops.
At the same time, Trump’s approval ratings have remained consistently weak. About 4 in 10 Americans approve of how he’s handling the presidency, roughly in line with how it’s been throughout his second term.
Republican strategist Ari Fleischer, a senior aide in former President George W. Bush’s administration, acknowledged that Trump has not received the polling bump in this war that Bush got after invading Iraq.
Bush, of course, worked to build public backing for the Iraq War before going in. Immediately after the 2003 invasion, Bush's popularity soared, as did the stock market.
Public sentiment and the economy soured only after the conflict stretched on. It ultimately spanned more than eight years, spawning a generation of anti-war Republicans — and sowing the seeds of Trump's “America First” foreign policy.
“My hope is that the Trump experience is the exact opposite of the Bush experience,” Fleischer said.
He said Trump must win the war decisively and quickly to avoid a further backlash, saying there could be a “very significant political upside if things end well, oil comes down and markets rally.”
Fleischer added that Trump's actions will matter much more than his words.
“Ultimately, he is not going to get judged on his persuasion or his explanations or his assertions, he’s going to get judged on results,” he said.
Associated Press writer Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.
In this image made with a long exposure, President Donald Trump speaks about the Iran war from the Cross Hall of the White House on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)
