Jets' Pavelec banned from driving in Czech Republic for 20 months

PRAGUE - Winnipeg Jets goaltender Ondrej Pavelec has been banned from driving for 20 months in his native Czech Republic after being found guilty of drunk driving.

The 24-year-old Pavelec also received a six-month suspended prison sentence for causing a traffic accident May 26 in his hometown of Kladno, west of the capital Prague.

Pavelec hit a car with his BMW. There were no injuries.

Judge Ivo Postulka, who pronounced the sentence in a court in Kladno on Tuesday, said the driving ban will go into effect July 10 and will be enforced in the Czech Republic only.

"I'm disappointed in myself for this error in judgment," Pavelec said in a statement released by the Jets. "I'm thankful no one was injuredFriday morning. The fires made a dramatic appearance in high-resolution images from the GOES-16 satellite (see embedded tweet below).

Thursday’s blazes were fueled by exceptionally volatile weather: temperatures of 90°F to 100°F, relative humidity well below 10%, and southwest winds gusting above 40 mph. Adding to the threat, most of the tinder-dry grasslands from eastern New Mexico to far western Oklahoma have gotten less than a half-inch of moisture in the past six months—the driest such period in more than a century of recordkeeping at some spots.

As the powerful surface and upper-level storm moves into the Plains on Friday, the hottest and driest zone will shift south into southeast New Mexico, west Texas, and southwest Oklahoma. A large area has been flagged for “extremely critical” fire weather, the most