Minnesota native Brock Nelson braces for split loyalties as Avs carry 2-0 lead over Wild into Game 3

DENVER (AP) — Brock Nelson realizes there are probably conflicting emotions in Warroad, Minnesota, his tiny hometown located in the northern part of the state and approximately 350 miles (563 kilometers) from the rink for Game 3.

He understands. The Colorado Avalanche center is playing for the enemy. It was presented to him, though, as a win-win situation for the town — either he or the Minnesota Wild move a step closer to the Stanley Cup title.

“But I hope to have a few more people on my side,” cracked Nelson, whose team leads the second-round series 2-0 heading into Saturday night's game in St. Paul. “But I know at the end of the day, you can’t be a fan of all the same teams, so hopefully get the bragging rights at the end.”

He has plenty of family and friends from Warroad (population around 2,000), where they take their hockey seriously and branded itself as “ Hockeytown USA."

That means “I’ll probably put a lot of friendships on pause for now,” he said.

Nelson will have a cheering section in the building this weekend. He already has warned his family and friends that he may not have much time for socializing.

This is a business trip.

Avalanche defenseman Sam Malinski also hails from Minnesota and grew up in Lakeville, a suburb of the Twin Cities. He went to his fair share of Wild games as a kid.

“It will be fun to be back in the same building,” Malinski said. “I know all my parents, brothers, extended family and a lot of my close friends are going, so it will be fun.”

Nelson already has treated his hometown, his state and his country to one memorable moment this season — an Olympic gold medal. He helped the U.S. beat Canada 2-1 in overtime at the Milan Cortina Games to capture the first Olympic title in men's hockey since the “Miracle on Ice” team in 1980.

He is the latest from his family to become an Olympic men's hockey champion, joining grandfather Bill Christian (1960), great-uncle Roger Christian (1960) and uncle Dave Christian (1980).

It was a pressure-packed experience he's taking with him into the playoffs.

“The attention to detail, the intensity, how big of an event that was. I think everyone was, not on edge, but at the top of their game,” Nelson recounted. “To have that in season was like an extra adrenaline shot. To be a part of it was something special.”

Now, he's intent on breaking some hearts by beating the Wild in their own building.

He played in that ice rink several times during high school and when he suited up for the University of North Dakota. In fact, he helped North Dakota win the Western Collegiate Hockey Association Final Five tournament in 2011 and '12 inside the building the Wild call home. His North Dakota team also lost at that site in the 2012 NCAA West Region championship game to the Minnesota Gophers.

Overall, Nelson said, “some good memories there.”

He knows it's going to be loud.

“The atmosphere is electric,” said Nelson, whose college coach, Dave Hakstol, is an assistant with the Avalanche. “You want to just get off to a good start, be simple, not trying to force anything. If you come out slow and sluggish and turn the pucks over, obviously they can feed off that, get the crowd into it."

There were swirling rumors of teams interested in Nelson at the trade deadline last season, including the Wild. Colorado acquired him from the New York Islanders on March 6, 2025. He had four assists in a first-round series loss to Dallas last season that went seven games.

“You never really know how it’s going to shake out,” said Nelson, a first-round draft pick by the Islanders in 2010. “Landed here and we've loved it here."

In June, the 34-year-old Nelson signed a three-year extension worth $22.5 million to stay in Colorado. He and his wife, Karley, have four kids.

“Getting a taste of it here, the group, the lifestyle, kind of a little bit of everything, it just seemed like a pretty good fit,” said Nelson, who had 33 goals and 32 assists during the regular season. “My family loved it.”

His teammates appreciate his even-keel demeanor. Nelson has a goal and an assist as the Avalanche have won six straight playoff games.

“Somebody everyone knows they can go and talk to if they need to," captain Gabriel Landeskog said. “Tons of experience. We’ll be leaning on him here as we go down the stretch.”

AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

FILE - Colorado Avalanche center Brock Nelson (11) and Minnesota Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon (46) in the first period of Game 1 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup second-round playoff series Sunday, May 3, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

FILE - Colorado Avalanche center Brock Nelson celebrates scoring during the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Minnesota Wild, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Bailey Hillesheim, File)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Countries around the world are preparing to deal with the more than 140 passengers and crew members on board a hantavirus-stricken cruise ship headed for the Canary Islands.

The vessel is expected to reach the Spanish island of Tenerife, off the coast of West Africa, early Sunday.

At least three passengers have died, and several other people have been infected.

Hantavirus is usually spread by the inhalation of contaminated rodent droppings and isn’t easily transmitted between people. Some scientists believe the Andes virus implicated in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. But the World Health Organization says the risk to the wider public from the outbreak is low. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.

Authorities and the cruise operator have been providing updates, but some key information is still lacking.

Here's what we don't know:

Argentine investigators suspect a Dutch couple may have first contracted the virus while on a bird-watching trip before they boarded the cruise ship in Argentina on April 1. But no organization has confirmed where or how they acquired the disease.

Argentina’s Health Ministry has zeroed in on the nation's southernmost town, Ushuaia. Officials plan to travel there in the coming days, according to a written statement to The Associated Press.

Spanish authorities are preparing to receive the remaining passengers and crew members on Tenerife. Officials said Friday that passengers will be evacuated in small boats to buses only once their repatriation flights are ready to take them.

The United States agreed to send a plane to the Canary Islands to pick up its citizens, as will the British government. American passengers will be brought to a dedicated biocontainment and quarantine unit in Nebraska for assessment, officials said Friday.

Other countries have not yet made their plans public, and it is not clear how long boat passengers will have to wait for their flights.

Spain has requested medically equipped planes for passengers experiencing symptoms, Virginia Barcones, the country's head of emergency services, said Friday.

Cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions and Dutch officials said Thursday that more than two dozen people from at least 12 different countries left the ship at the remote island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic on April 24.

They included a Dutch woman who disembarked with her husband's body. He was the first passenger to die, but it wasn’t until May 2 that health authorities first confirmed hantavirus in a ship passenger.

The delay left countries scrambling to track the passengers who got off the ship some two weeks earlier.

The passengers included a resident of the remote island of Tristan da Cunha who has been hospitalized with symptoms of hantavirus, according to the British Foreign Office.

Stephen Doughty, the U.K. minister of overseas territories, said in a message to the British overseas territory that his thoughts were with “the islander currently in hospital and their spouse who is isolating.”

Many of the passengers who disembarked at St. Helena traveled on to other countries, including the Dutch woman whose husband died on board. She flew to Johannesburg then briefly boarded a plane preparing to fly to Amsterdam. She was removed because she was too ill to travel, and later died.

South African and Dutch authorities are trying to trace the whereabouts of anyone who had contact with the woman during her travels. A flight attendant who had contact with her has tested negative for hantavirus after reporting symptoms.

Some governments, like the United Kingdom, have confirmed the whereabouts of their citizens who left the boat. However, U.K. officials do not know or have not made public how many others they have come into contact with since.

In the U.S., some state officials said they were monitoring a small number of residents who were on the ship and already went home. None have symptoms.

Spanish Civil Guard officers and port authorities inspect the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Friday, May 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Health workers in protective gear evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship into an ambulance at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)

FILE - Health workers in protective gear evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship into an ambulance at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu, File)