WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Cole Perfetti scored a pair of goals, Mark Scheifele had a goal and two assists, and the Winnipeg Jets beat the Minnesota Wild 5-2 on Tuesday night.
Perfetti opened the scoring with his fourth of the season just 1:50 into the game. He added another late in the second period on the power play, converting a pass from Gabriel Vilardi in the slot.
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Winnipeg Jets' Neal Pionk (4) deflects a shot by Minnesota Wild's Bobby Brink (10) during first period NHL hockey action in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (Fred Greenslade/The Canadian Press via AP)
Winnipeg Jets' Mark Scheifele (55) celebrates his goal against the Minnesota Wild during first period NHL hockey action in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (Fred Greenslade/The Canadian Press via AP)
Winnipeg Jets' Kyle Connor (81) has a shot go over Minnesota Wild goaltender Calvin Pickard (31) and the net during first period NHL hockey action in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (Fred Greenslade/The Canadian Press via AP)
Winnipeg Jets' Tyrel Bauer (77) checks Minnesota Wild's Tyler Pitlick (19) during first period NHL hockey action in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (Fred Greenslade/The Canadian Press via AP)
Winnipeg Jets' Cole Perfetti (91) celebrates his goal against the Minnesota Wild during second period NHL hockey action in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (Fred Greenslade/The Canadian Press via AP)
Promoted to the top line with Scheifele and Kyle Connor, the trio combined for seven points against the Wild. Connor had a goal and assist. Connor now has goals in three straight games and in five of six games this season.
Perfetti now has five goals this season. Last season, the Jets winger needed 40 games to score five times.
Cole Koepke also scored for Winnipeg, which finished a three-game homestand 2-1.
Stuart Skinner made 19 saves and has yet to lose in regulation this season, with a 3-0-1 record.
Kirill Kaprizov scored both goals for the Wild, who were playing the second of back-to-back games after defeating the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday night. Calvin Pickard stopped 20 shots. Kaprizov’s two goals gives him the NHL lead, with eight. Quinn Hughes’ assist extended his point streak to seven games. He has two goals and eight assists in that span.
Winnipeg went 1 for 2 on the power play, while Minnesota was 0 for 2.
Winnipeg never trailed in the game, taking 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 leads.
Wild: Host St. Louis on Thursday night.
Jets: At Chicago on Thursday night.
See AP’s full NHL coverage here
Winnipeg Jets' Neal Pionk (4) deflects a shot by Minnesota Wild's Bobby Brink (10) during first period NHL hockey action in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (Fred Greenslade/The Canadian Press via AP)
Winnipeg Jets' Mark Scheifele (55) celebrates his goal against the Minnesota Wild during first period NHL hockey action in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (Fred Greenslade/The Canadian Press via AP)
Winnipeg Jets' Kyle Connor (81) has a shot go over Minnesota Wild goaltender Calvin Pickard (31) and the net during first period NHL hockey action in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (Fred Greenslade/The Canadian Press via AP)
Winnipeg Jets' Tyrel Bauer (77) checks Minnesota Wild's Tyler Pitlick (19) during first period NHL hockey action in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (Fred Greenslade/The Canadian Press via AP)
Winnipeg Jets' Cole Perfetti (91) celebrates his goal against the Minnesota Wild during second period NHL hockey action in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (Fred Greenslade/The Canadian Press via AP)
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV was expected to be admitted to a Rome hospital Tuesday for the removal of a lung nodule in an operation experts say will determine whether the lesion is malignant and if other treatment is needed.
Leo has offered a rare level of transparency about the first publicly disclosed major health problem of his 17-month papacy. He revealed the discovery of the small, localized nodule during his Sunday noon prayer and announced that he would have it removed.
The Vatican said Leo would be admitted to the Gemelli hospital late Tuesday morning, but there was no immediate word on the timing of the operation itself.
The surgery, which is usually performed under general anesthesia, will require a weeklong hospital stay and the Vatican on Monday canceled all Leo’s audiences through Oct. 20.
“These are things that can be treated very well, if the words he used reflect the clinical situation,” said Dr. Lorenzo Spaggiari, director of thoracic surgery at the European Institute of Oncology, or EIO, in Milan, who is not involved in the pope’s care but knows the team at Gemelli.
Spaggiari said he expected the team at Gemelli would perform a biopsy to determine whether Leo has lung cancer followed by the removal of a section or lobe of the lung where the nodule is located.
Both could be done using robotic techniques, and could be performed consecutively, under the same anesthesia, with different specialist teams, Spaggiari said.
A sophisticated robotic bronchoscopy technology called ION allows a biopsy on nodules as small as 3 millimeters (1/10 inch) , Spaggiari said. Both the Gemelli and the EIO have the technology, which has been available in Italy for just two years.
Gemelli also has robotic surgical technology, allowing the operation to remove the nodule to proceed “using a minimally invasive technique,” he said.
The technique involves the surgeon making four small incisions in the chest through which the instruments of the so-called da Vinci robot are inserted, he said. The surgeon then controls the robotic arms looking at a screen providing high-definition, 3D views of the surgical site.
“It’s a very well-established technology. This is something we have been doing for 20 years,” he said.
It wasn't known for certain what technique would be used on Leo. Gemelli has documented using both robotic procedures to diagnose and operate in under four hours.
The biopsy risk is “virtually zero,” while the surgical risk is very small, carrying a 0.6% to 0.8% mortality rate for patients in otherwise good health with good heart and lung function, Spaggiari said.
During the surgery to remove the nodule and part of the lung, doctors would also remove lymph nodes that drain the segment or lobe. “If all those lymph nodes turn out to be negative, so stage one, then the outlook is very good,” he said, adding that no other treatment would be necessary.
The nodule was discovered during regular checks, the Vatican has said, and Spaggiari said the pope has likely undergone other tests before being recommended for surgery.
“I think he has had a bit of luck. They found something that was asymptomatic — a lung nodule, possibly a tumor. He might call it something else; we call it luck,” he said.
EIO advises patients not to fly for three weeks after surgery — which would give the pope just the interval needed to make his planned Nov. 6-17 trip to Peru, Argentina and Uruguay, depending on his recovery.
“I think the Holy Father is in excellent hands at Gemelli,” Spaggiari said. “They have everything needed to keep the Holy Father alive for a long time.”
Leo’s surgery marks the first major health event of his pontificate. It was significant because the pope himself revealed the news, in perhaps the most public way possible: at the end of his Sunday noon blessing, with thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square.
The Vatican has for centuries zealously guarded the pope’s health and has often sent out confusing information, or none at all, about papal illnesses. Pope Francis tried to change that by being upfront about his frailties and musing on his eventual death. But even during his pontificate, information was tightly controlled.
Leo’s decision and reveal suggested an unusual level of transparency by the American pope.
“I really appreciated yesterday at the end of the Angelus, he himself said, ‘This is what’s going on — very transparent — and ask for prayers,’” said Quebec Cardinal Gérald Cyprien Lacroix at the Vatican Monday.
A lung nodule is a small abnormal area measuring less than 3 centimeters (1.2 inches) that sometimes appears on a CT scan of the chest or abdomen. Often, the scans are done to investigate trauma or a lung infection, unrelated to a lung cancer screening. A nodule can be benign or malignant, and oftentimes surgical removal is recommended both to establish whether it is cancer and to treat a malignancy while it is still localized.
Oncologists say even if the nodule turns out to be cancerous, Leo’s prognosis is “excellent” since it will have been removed at an early stage.
Barry reported from Milan.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Ice cream vendor Alicia Caso touches a life-size statue of Pope Leo XIV standing on display outside a church in the Barranco neighborhood of Lima, Peru, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, a month before the pope's visit to Peru. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)
Medical Director Andrea Cambieri, right, greets Pope Leo XIV as he arrives at the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, where doctors expect to operate to remove a lung nodule. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
A TV news crew stands outside St. Peter's Square, in Rome, Monday, Oct. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Postcards of Pope Leo XIV are displayed outside a shop selling religious items near St. Peter's Square, in Rome, Monday, Oct. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Pope Leo XIV leaves at the end the Angelus prayer in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
The statue of late Pope John Paul II is pictured at the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
A mosaic of Pope Leo XIV is displayed inside a shop selling religious items near St. Peter's Square, in Rome, Monday, Oct. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
