For a second day in a row, COVID-19 has resulted in the cancellation of games at the World Junior Hockey Championship.
After the United States on Tuesday, it is the turn of the Czech Republic and Russia to give up playing a match.
The Czechs have indeed withdrawn from their match scheduled for Wednesday afternoon against Finland. Then, in the middle of the afternoon, it was the Russians’ turn to do the same, for the duel against Slovakia.
The Finns and Slovaks therefore won their respective matches by default, with a score of 1-0. As this is the preliminary round, Czechia and Russia are not eliminated from the tournament, but their ranking to advance to the quarter-finals is necessarily affected.
A case among the Czechs
In its announcement on the Czech-Finland duel, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) specifies that it is a positive result of a Czech player in a test for COVID-19 which is at the origin of the cancellation Match. This positive case indeed forces the team to go into quarantine.
“This is news that surprised me, as all of our players and staff followed tournament protocol and health rules,” Czech head coach Karel Mlejnek said in a statement which got copy reporter Mike Morreale, of NHL. com.
According to Brother Bob McKenzie, this quarantine will last 24 hours and players will be tested twice during this period.
The teams participating in the world juniors are theoretically constrained to bubbles, in Edmonton and Red Deer. They underwent a 48-hour quarantine upon arrival in Alberta and must stick to back and forth between the arena and the hotel. Unlike the bubble that the NHL created during the 2020 playoffs, however, hotels are not for the exclusive use of teams, and other clients are also accommodated there.
Despite these provisions, COVID-19 has visibly invited itself to the tournament. The United States must also face Sweden on Wednesday evening. But the team learned on Tuesday that two of its players had contracted COVID-19, hence its withdrawal on Tuesday. Obviously, if other players produce positive tests by Wednesday night, the American team could again have to withdraw.