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Devon Toews scored the tiebreaking goal late in the third period, Martin Necas added an empty-netter to go with two assists, and the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Kings 4-2 on Monday night.

Toews got free in the slot and converted Nathan MacKinnon’s pass with 4:55 remaining to help the Avalanche (40-10-9) become the first NHL team with 40 wins this season.

MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog each had a goal and an assist. Mackenzie Blackwood made 19 saves for Colorado, which has won five of seven.

Brandt Clarke had a power-play goal, Angus Booth scored in his NHL debut, and Anton Forsberg made 35 saves for the Kings, who were playing their first game since firing coach Jim Hiller on Sunday and replacing him on an interim basis with D.J. Smith.

The Kings were also missing seven key players because of injury or illness, including medalists from the Olympic hockey tournament at the Milan-Cortina Games in defenseman Drew Doughty, forwards Joel Armia and Quinton Byfield and goalie Darcy Kuemper. Those absences led to the Kings giving three players their NHL debuts in Booth, center Kenny Connors and winger Jared Wright.

With Kuemper ill, the Kings also recalled Erik Portillo to back up Forsberg. Armia was placed on injured reserve before the game.

The Avalanche capitalized early, scoring twice in the opening 10:13 on one-timers from MacKinnon and Landeskog, before the Kings responded with a power-play goal from Clarke late in the first period.

An early whistle wiped out Necas putting in a rebound early in the second, and Booth got to the top of the crease to tip in Brian Dumoulin’s centering pass to tie it 2-all at 8:32.

Katherine Short, the daughter of actor and comedian Martin Short, has died. She was 42.

Her death was confirmed by her family.

“It is with profound grief that we confirm the passing of Katherine Hartley Short,” the family said in a statement. “The Short family is devastated by this loss and asks for privacy at this time. Katherine was beloved by all and will be remembered for the light and joy she brought into the world.”

A law enforcement source told The Times that Short, an L.A. social worker, died by an apparent suicide.

This post will be updated as the story develops.

Polish short track speed skater Kamila Sellier has undergone surgery after she was struck in the face by a blade in a serious crash at Milan-Cortina 2026.

Sellier was racing in the quarter-finals of the women’s 1500m on the final night of short track competition at the Milano Ice Skating Arena.

She was brought down along with 14-time Olympic medallist Arianna Fontana of Italy and American Kristen Santos-Griswold, who was penalised for attempting an illegal pass that contributed to the crash.

As Santos-Griswold fell, her skate caught Sellier and sliced her under her left eye.

Racing was paused while Sellier received attention behind the privacy of a white sheet. She was then stretched off the ice, managing to give a thumbs up to the crowd as she left.

The nominated Oscar shorts come in three categories — and a lot of subjects, styles and temperaments. It’s further proof that an award dictated by length needn’t be bound by anything else.

In the live-action category, a mixed bag of approaches — some inspired by classic literature — are burnished by inspired performances. Lee Knight’s “A Friend of Dorothy” may be a tad on the nose about the cultural and emotional impact of a lonely London widow on a closeted teenaged boy. But leads Miriam Margolyes and Alistair Nwachukwu practically shimmer with humor and warmth. “Jane Austen’s Period Drama,” a loving tweak of the writer’s oeuvre from Steve Pinder and Julia Aks (who also stars), is essentially a one-joke calling card to make feature comedies and it should do the job. Its cast is exactly the sprightly ensemble needed to land its what-if laughs.

Two others just miss the mark in terms of bringing their tensions to powerful resolutions yet benefit from who the camera adores. Meyer Levinson-Blount’s “Butcher’s Stain,” centered on a flimsy accusation against a friendly Palestinian butcher in an Israeli market, undercuts its gripping story with lackadaisical filmmaking and an unnecessary subplot, but lead Omar Sameer is commanding. The black-and-white future shock “Two People Exchanging Saliva,” directed by Natalie Musteata and Alexandre Singh, is an uneven Euro-art bath of unrealized intimacy and casual violence — kissing is punishable by death, slapping is currency — but is given exquisite tautness by the elegant, unrequited swooniness of stars Zar Amir and Luana Bajrami.

A scene from “Jane Austen’s Period Drama,” nominated in the live-action short category.

(Roadside Attractions)

Then there’s my favorite, Sam A. Davis’ likely winner “The Singers,” from Ivan Turgenev’s short story, which pays off handsomely in bites of soulful warbling that briefly turn a barroom’s den of anesthesia into a temple of feeling.

Most of this year’s documentary nominees deal with the grimmest of tragedies, as in “All the Empty Rooms” and “Children No More: Were and Are Gone,” which address the remembrance of children brutally killed. The former film, from Joshua Seftel, follows CBS correspondent Steve Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp on an essay project into the bedrooms of kids gunned down in school shootings, their private worlds heartbreakingly preserved by their families. The latter short, directed by Hilla Medalia, witnesses Tel Aviv’s silent vigils for Gaza’s children, protests marked by posters with beaming faces, and sometimes met with open scorn. These are dutiful, sobering acts of mourning — Seftel’s is the probable awardee. You may wish they were more than that, however, considering the issues (guns, war, political intransigence) that created the devastation.

Combat is what drove award-winning photojournalist Brent Renaud, killed in Ukraine in 2022. But his brother Craig’s memorializing of him, “Armed Only With a Camera,” is oddly uninvolving, more an excerpted flipbook of Brent’s far-flung assignments than a meaningful portrait of excelling at a dangerous job. A more affecting real-world dispatch (and my pick, if I could vote) is “The Devil Is Busy,” directed by Christalyn Hampton and dual nominee Geeta Gandbhir, also up for the feature “The Perfect Neighbor.” It observes a day in the operation of a carefully guarded, female-run Georgia abortion clinic as if it were a newly medieval world’s last chance healthcare outpost, getting by on grit, compassion and prayer. You certainly won’t forget security head Tracii, the clinic’s heavyhearted knight and guide.

A scene from “Perfectly a Strangeness,” nominated in the documentary short category.

(Roadside Attractions)

Your chaser is Alison McAlpine’s appealing, aptly titled “Perfectly a Strangeness,” sans humans, but starring three donkeys in an unnamed desert happening upon a cluster of hilltop observatories. The whir of science meets the wonder of nature and this charming, gorgeously shot ode to discovery (both on Earth and out there) makes one hope the motion picture academy sees fit to recognize more imaginative nonfiction works going forward.

Animation, of course, thrives on the thrill of conjured worlds, like the one in Konstantin Bronzit’s wordless (but not soundless) desert island farce “The Three Sisters.” It owes nothing to Chekhov — though there are seagulls — but much to a classically Russian sense of humor and a Chaplinesque ingenuity. Elsewhere, you can watch the overly cute Christian homily “Forevergreen,” from Nathan Engelhardt and Jeremy Spears, about a nurturing tree, a restless bear and the dangerous allure of potato chips. The message gets muddled but this eco-conscious journey is charming.

It’s tough to predict a winner when the entrants are this strong, but John Kelly’s “Retirement Plan” feasts on wry relatability, as Domhnall Gleeson narrates a paunchy middle-aged man’s ambitious post-career goals, while the cascade of deadpan funny, thickly-lined and mundanely hued images stress a more poignant, finite reality. In its all-too-human view of life, this is, entertainingly, whatever the opposite of a cloying graduation speech is.

A scene from “Retirement Plan,” nominated in the animated short category.

(Roadside Attractions)

The spindly aged-doll puppetry in the stop-motion gem “The Girl Who Cried Pearls” marks a sly fable of need, greed and destiny, centered on a wealthy grandfather’s Dickensian fashioning of his poverty-stricken childhood in early 19th century Montreal. Filmmakers Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski find an enchanting balance between storybook allure and adult trickery. Maybe this one steals it?

Whichever the case, the animation that moved me the most is “Butterfly,” from Florence Miailhe, imagining the last, memory-laden swim of Jewish French-Algerian athlete Alfred Nakache, who competed in the Olympics before and after the Holocaust. In the cocooning fluidity of an ocean-borne day, rendered with thick-brushed painterliness and splashes of sound, we travel across flashes of community, injustice, achievement, love and despair. The visual, thematic constant, though, is water as a haven and a poetic life force that feeds renewal.

Eight years later, the latest UK Sport funding allocation of just under £2m has been presented as a total for short track, figure and long track speed skating.

So short track is caught in the situation which befalls many Olympic sports in Britain – they need to perform at the Games to get more funding, but without the funding they struggle to achieve success.

Asked what work is being done to fix short track, British Olympic Association (BOA) chair Dame Katherine Grainger told BBC Sport: “As much potential as we have in that team, there is more untapped.

“It is not a sport we have a legacy in, so that opens the door – we need to learn from other countries where we can.”

Add in the fact that there are few sports in the world more chaotic and unpredictable than short track.

Christie was Britain’s most recognisable speed skater a decade ago when she won three gold medals at the 2017 World Championships, but a series of crashes and disqualifications ruined her Olympic dreams in 2014 and 2018.

And this year, Treacy’s luck was also out. Take his 1,000m final – usually this event would have six racers, but in Milan had nine because three athletes were advanced to the medal race after being illegally hindered in their semi-finals.

Would Treacy, who was running in third when he tangled with Liu, have won a medal if there were fewer men on the track? Ultimately, hypotheticals do not put cash in the bank.

Treacy could not hide his funding frustrations when speaking to the BBC following that final.

“If we only had a bit more support going through the Olympic cycle,” he said. “In the UK we don’t even have an ice centre which is safe enough for competitions.

“In the UK we have to look at ourselves and see we need a facility where we can train at the top level, instead of having to go to other countries.”

Treacy is correct that there is no venue in Britain that could host an international short track event, because there are no rinks with the soft boards needed around the border to protect racers when there are crashes.

MILAN — Chloe Kim came up short in her attempt to become the first person to win three consecutive Olympic snowboarding gold medals on Thursday, finishing second in the halfpipe to South Korea’s Gaon Choi at Livigno Snow Park.

Choi stormed back from a nasty crash on her first run in which she clipped the lip of the halfpipe and came tumbling almost head first onto the icy surface. She looked shaky on her second run then the 17-year-old who leads the World Cup standings threw down a near flawless 90.25-point run while fresh snow fell to jump ahead of Kim, who had 88 points on her first run.

Dropping in last as the top qualifier, Kim had a chance to grab the gold medal back. She flashed two thumbs up to her coaching team before dropping in. But she fell on a cab double cork 1080, which she had stomped in her first two runs.

At the bottom of the halfpipe, Choi threw her arms in the air. Her coach ran to hug her. Kim, after sliding to the bottom of the pipe, ran through the crowd to congratulate Choi. The new Olympic champion was celebrating with Kim’s family.

The snowboard stars have history. Kim helped Choi train at Mammoth Mountain Snowboarding Club. Choi counts Kim among one of her snowboarding idols after Kim launched herself to superstardom at the 2018 Olympics.

Kim, then 17, became the youngest woman to win an Olympic snowboarding gold medal in PyeongChang. She followed it up with a historic gold in Beijing, where she became the first woman to win two Olympic gold medals in halfpipe.

The 25-year-old Kim suffered a torn labrum in her right shoulder in early January while training in Switzerland. It was the second time she had injured her shoulder in less than four weeks after she was forced to withdraw from a World Cup competition in December.

The injury meant the Olympics were Kim’s first competition of the season.

BRITS flying to or from a popular holiday destination in Europe will face delays and cancellations today.

Major flight disruptions are expected today on Lufthansa Group flights which includes Lufthansa and short-haul carrier CityLine, as pilots and cabin crew strike.

While Lufthansa has not provided cancellation numbers, German airport association ADV estimated that more than 460 flights will be cancelled – affecting 70,000 passengers.

Sun Travel found that 14 flights from Frankfurt Airport to the UK today have been cancelled from Frankfurt Airport.

Lufthansa often uses aircraft for these routes that have between 150 and 180 passengers.

If 165 passengers are travelling in each flight, then the total number of people impacted by the cancellations could be more than 2,000.

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Ten flights from London Heathrow to either Frankfurt or Munich have been cancelled.

One flight to Munich and one flight to Frankfurt have been cancelled from Birmingham Airport.

Two flights to Frankfurt have been cancelled from Manchester Airport.

German pilots’ union VC (Vereinigung Cockpit) called the 24-hour strike on Tuesday, to demand more generous retirement benefits.

A spokesperson for Lufthansa said the announcements were “extremely short-notice” and “disproportionate”, adding that they would hit passengers hard.

The spokesperson continued: “Sustainable solutions can only be found through dialogue; strikes must always remain a last resort.

“We therefore call on the unions to resume talks with us.

“We are ready to do so at any time.”

The spokesperson also said that passengers would be notified if the strike impacted their flight.

The strike action comes just three days after Lufthansa City Airlines officially commenced flight operations from Frankfurt Airport, which is also the Lufthansa Group’s largest hub.

Sun Travel has contacted Lufthansa for comment.

Flight compensation rules

A look at your rights if a flight is delayed or cancelled, when your entitled to compensation and if your travel insurance can cover the costs.

What are my rights if my flight is cancelled or delayed?

Under UK law, airlines have to provide compensation if your flight arrives at its destination more than three hours late.

If you’re flying to or from the UK, your airline must let you choose a refund or an alternative flight.

You will be able to get your money back for the part of your ticket that you haven’t used yet.

So if you booked a return flight and the outbound leg is cancelled, you can get the full cost of the return ticket refunded.

But if travelling is essential, then your airline has to find you an alternative flight. This could even be with another airline.

When am I not entitled to compensation?

The airline doesn’t have to give you a refund if the flight was cancelled due to reasons beyond their control, such as extreme weather.

Disruptions caused by things like extreme weather, airport or air traffic control employee strikes or other ‘extraordinary circumstances’ are not eligible for compensation.

Some airlines may stretch the definition of “extraordinary circumstances” but you can challenge them through the aviation regulator the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

Will my insurance cover me if my flight is cancelled?

If you can’t claim compensation directly through the airline, your travel insurance may refund you.

Policies vary so you should check the small print, but a delay of eight to 12 hours will normally mean you qualify for some money from your insurer.

Remember to get written confirmation of your delay from the airport as your insurer will need proof.

If your flight is cancelled entirely, you’re unlikely to be covered by your insurance.

In other aviation news, there are 37 new flights launching from a major UK airport this year including budget routes to Asia and Jet2’s first ever.

Plus, a woman’s plane was hit by birds – blood splattered the windows and it had to do an emergency landing.

FOR many, winter means hibernation – but if you’re looking for something to do as a family, there are plenty of options out there.

Now might also be a good time to look for better deals, with fewer crowds and lower prices; those looking for winter days out and short breaks can feel more special than during peak season.

Whether you’re craving crisp countryside walks, a fun day filled with adventure and rides, or something a bit more spontaneous, a little planning goes a long way.

Winter can also open the door to seasonal events that don’t exist during the summer and cosy family experiences with less hustle and bustle.

Wondering where to get started?

That’s where this checklist comes in handy, as a practical, inspiration-led guide to making the most of the colder months.

Before you resign yourself to another winter spent mainly indoors, here are five ideas worth considering.

Top 5 travel checklist

Drayton Manor

In the eyes of Lakers coach JJ Redick, every team his group faces is a test. Still, many wondered if the Lakers’ litmus test would come from facing the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday night.

Even with All-Star and league most valuable player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander out with a strained abdominal, the Thunder are still a problem for most of the league. And the Lakers had to play OKC with their own MVP candidate, Luka Doncic, sitting out for the second straight game with a left hamstring strain.

In the end, the Thunder had seven players score in double figures and pulled out a 119-110 win over the Lakers at Crypto.com Arena.

The Lakers (32-19) had six players score in double figures, but it wasn’t enough.

LeBron James had 22 points, 10 assists and six rebounds, Marcus Smart had 19 points, Austin Reaves 16 off the bench, Jake LaRavia 14 and Rui Hachimura and Jaxon Hayes both had 12 points.

Reaves gave the Lakers a 99-98 lead on a drive to the basket in the fourth quarter.

But the Thunder just kept coming back, taking a 109-101 lead by outscoring the Lakers 11-2.

The Lakers, too, kept fighting back, getting to within 113-110 on a Hachimura basket.

But Jalen Williams, who had 23 points in his return to the lineup, kept scoring for the Thunder, making a field goal, two free throws with 35.9 seconds left and two more with 20.9 seconds left that sealed the game.

Thunder guard Kenrich Williams is double teamed by Luke Kennard and Jarred Vanderbilt in the first half.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Reaves provided the fans with a big-time highlight, driving down the lane and throwing down a two-handed dunk on Jaylin Williams and Aaron Wiggins to end the first quarter.

The Lakers had 20 turnovers the last time they played at Oklahoma City in a game L.A. got down by as much as 37 points before losing by 29.

So, one point of emphasis for the Lakers was taking care of the basketball and then playing a high level of basketball despite the opponent.

“For our group, it felt like it’s good to see where we’re at every single night,” Redick said.

His team spent the entire first half climbing out of a hole.

The Lakers were down by just one at the end of the first quarter, but quickly got down 52-38 early in the second quarter.

But behind a James dunk over Chet Holmgren, the Lakers got to within two points in the second, drawing cheers from the fans.

But the Lakers couldn’t keep up that momentum, going down 67-58 at the half.

Then in the third quarter, the Lakers got rolling and opened an eight-point lead behind a strong defense and good offense.

But again, the Thunder didn’t stop playing hard, coming back to open a 93-91 lead at the end of the third quarter on an Alex Caruso three-pointer.

MILAN — Brittany Bowe will bow out of the Olympics without a medal in her best event.

A four-time Olympian who said the Milan-Cortina Games will be her last, Bowe was edged off the podium in the final pair of the speed skating 1,000-meter race Monday, finishing fourth with a time of one minute and 14.55 seconds. Japan’s Miho Takagi bumped the 37-year-old American out of third place with a time of one minute, 13.59 seconds.

The Netherlands’ Jutta Leerdam set an Olympic record to win gold, clocking in at one minute, 12.31 seconds. She bested her own teammates’ Olympic record set minutes before to push Femke Kok down to silver.

Kok clapped with a resigned look on her face after Leerdam’s time flashed on the screen. Black mascara stained Leerdam’s cheeks as she skated around the arena, saluting the legion of Dutch fans that filled the stands at Milano Speed Skating Stadium. Her fiance, YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul, was in the stands and moved to tears.

Jutta Leerdam of the Netherlands celebrates winning the gold medal in the women’s 1,000-meter speedskating race at the Winter Olympics in Milan on Monday.

(Luca Bruno / Associated Press)

Erin Jackson, the 2022 Olympic gold medalist in the 500 meters who was skating through three herniated discs in her lower back, finished sixth. Racing in the 1,000 meters for the first time in her Olympic career, she clapped cordially at the end of the race. Bowe, who set the world record in the 1,000 meters in 2019, hugged her coaches before disappearing off the ice.

Already longtime friends, the Americans became inextricably linked in 2022. Bowe gave up her qualifying spot in the 500 meters for the Beijing Olympics after Jackson slipped during the U.S. Olympic trials. Bowe had already qualified in other disciplines. She knew Jackson had potential to win a medal. The decision to relinquish her spot was easy, she said at the time.

Jackson made the sacrifice worth it, becoming the first Black woman to win an individual gold medal in the Winter Olympics. Bowe, who still raced in the 500 meters after an additional spot became free, finished 16th.

Bowe instead relied on her top event, the 1,000 meters, for her chance at the podium. The world record holder in the event — which she set in 2019 — won bronze in Beijing for her first individual Olympic medal.

American Erin Jackson competes in the women’s 1,000-meter speedskating race at the Winter Olympics in Milan on Monday.

(Luca Bruno / Associated Press)

But the experience felt “empty,” Bowe said in retrospect. With empty stands during the pandemic-affected Games, Bowe missed the energy of the crowd and especially her family and friends.

Bowe wasn’t lacking for crowd noise Monday. The oval was encircled by a ring of orange. Dutch fans roared every time one of their competitors zoomed by. Even when Kok and Leerdam were warming up, gliding by at a snail’s pace compared to skaters during their race, the crowd cheered. They waved in acknowledgment.

When Kok crossed the finish line, she raised both fists triumphantly. Her time of one minute, 12.59 seconds was good enough for the Olympic record, but Leerdam blazed past her only two pairs later.

Bowe and Jackson will still race in Jackson’s specialty of the 500 meters, while Bowe will finish her Olympic career in the 1,500 meters.