Photo: Shane Clausing

By Canadian Press

world junior hockey championhship

World Junior Hockey Championship cancelled due to COVID-19 cases

Dec 29, 2021 | 2:23 PM

EDMONTON – The World Junior Hockey Championship in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alta., was cancelled Wednesday in the face of lost games due to COVID-19.

A third game forfeited in two days left the International Ice Hockey Federation, Hockey Canada and organizing committee with few options to continue a tournament with competitive integrity, and they opted to call off the 11-day, 10-country tournament in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alta.

After two days of games, players testing positive for COVID-19 had put defending champion United States, Russia and Czechia into mandatory quarantines by Wednesday.

Canada was scheduled to play its third preliminary-round game against Germany on Wednesday night.

Teams arrived in Alberta on Dec. 15. Players were quarantined and were tested before being allowed to skate.

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The pre-tournament schedule was reduced to one game per team, with the Czechs and Swiss unable to play any because of positive tests for the virus.

The IIHF released a statement regarding the cancelation of the tournament on their website.

“Together with the teams, we came into this event with full confidence in the COVID-19 protocols put in place by the IIHF, the LOC, Alberta Health, Alberta Health Services and the Public Health Agency of Canada,” said IIHF President Luc Tardif.

“The ongoing spread of COVID-19 and the Omicron variant forced us to readjust our protocols almost immediately upon arrival to attempt to stay ahead of any potential spread. This included daily testing and the team quarantine requirement when positive cases were confirmed.”

“We owed it to the participating teams to do our best to create the conditions necessary for this event to work,” said Tardif. “Unfortunately, this was not enough. We now have to take some time and focus on getting all players and team staff back home safely.”

(The Canadian Press)