BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Kim Pegula's desire to grow women's professional hockey will no longer involve a relationship with North America's remaining professional league.

Hilary Knight would rather risk missing a year of playing meaningful hockey than settle for the status quo.

The star American forward is among more than 200 of the world's top female players...

GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Lyndsey Fry could have continued playing hockey. She had a stellar collegiate career, a degree, an Olympic silver medal placed around her neck, so playing professionally was a logical next step.

The grueling rehab from hip surgery it would take to get back to an elite level was not all that appealing. Nor was playing in a women's professional hockey league on a less-than-livable salary — or being away from her family.

SEATTLE (AP) — The abolishment of the death penalty was voted the state's top news story of 2018 by Associated Press staff and member editors.

Other top news items of the past 12 months included the awarding of a new professional hockey franchise for Seattle, the death of Microsoft co-found Paul Allen and the end of a long-running court battle over education funding.

SEATTLE (AP) — John Barr understood it was likely a foregone conclusion and yet as NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman spoke nearly 3,000 miles away, he found himself getting emotional watching the televisions in the packed bar.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota voters have cleared Sen. Tina Smith to fill out the final two years of former Sen. Al Franken's term.

Smith, a longtime Democratic power player who was appointed to take Franken's seat after he resigned, defeated Republican state Sen. Karin Housley on Tuesday in a special election.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith, who was appointed to take former Sen. Al Franken's seat after he resigned, won Tuesday's special election to finish the final two years of his term.

The longtime Democratic power player defeated Republican state Sen. Karin Housley, who had an energetic campaign and a name made famous by her husband's professional hockey career. Housley gave Republicans hope they could win back the office that the party lost to Franken in 2008.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey's rapidly growing sports betting market is extending its reach into a professional hockey arena, even as it adds a seventh Atlantic City casino to the fold.

Bookmaker William Hill US said it plans to open a sports lounge Thursday night at Newark's Prudential Center, where the NHL's New Jersey Devils play.

Players want a single North American women's professional hockey league. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman does, too. And now National Women's Hockey League founder and Commissioner Dani Rylan is on record saying she is working toward that objective.

"One league is inevitable," Rylan wrote in an email to The Associated Press, her strongest statement regarding a potential merger with the rival Canadian Women's Hockey League.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Having already blazed a trail in men's professional hockey, three-time Canadian Olympic team goalie Shannon Szabados will continue her career by finally giving the women's pro game a try.

Putting aside thoughts of retiring, Szabados cited opportunity and proximity as reasons she signed with the Buffalo Beauts of the National Women's Hockey League.

SECAUCUS, N.J. (AP) — Olympic gold medalist Monique Lamoureux-Morando will make her debut as an NHL Network studio analyst on Friday.

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — With the top three teams in the Eastern Conference all coming out of the Atlantic Division, there's a good chance the second and third best teams in the East will play in the first round for the second straight year.

That imbalance has led some to push to abandon the division playoff format and go back to seeding teams one through eight by conference. Why stop there?

SEATTLE (AP) — Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer has been hosting hockey games for a quarter-century. Now he wants to do it on a much bigger scale.

The filmmaker of "Flashdance," ''Beverly Hills Cop" and "Top Gun" fame joined his partners — billionaire David Bonderman and Oak View Group Chief Executive Tim Leiweke — on Wednesday in discussing for the first time publicly why they're trying to bring a professional hockey team to Seattle.

SEATTLE (AP) — Fans longing for a professional hockey team in Seattle will soon be able to put down some money for season tickets.

Mayor Jenny Durkan and the Oak View Group, which is trying to bring an NHL team to the city, announced Tuesday that people can make refundable deposits for season tickets at NHLSeattle.com beginning March 1.

The deposits run $500 per ticket for season tickets or $1,000 per ticket for club season tickets, which are center ice, lower-level tickets.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The Hartford Whalers left Connecticut 20 years ago, but their beloved logo will now appear on vehicles gliding along the state's highways.

The Department of Motor Vehicles on Tuesday unveiled a new commemorative license plate that bears the former professional hockey team's green-and-blue insignia. Forty-five dollars from the sale of each plate, which usually costs $60, will benefit a new infusion and dialysis center at the Connecticut Children's Medical Center in Hartford.

NEW YORK (AP) — There's hope for girls and women who want to play professional hockey in the United States thanks to the New Jersey Devils.

The Devils recently announced a partnership with the Metropolitan Riveters, one of four teams in the fledgling National Women's Hockey League. The Devils will provide their practice facility for home games in Newark, assist with marketing and host a doubleheader with the Riveters on Saturday at the Prudential Center.