EDMONTON — The world junior men's 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 (IIHF), 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.
"Following a recommendation by the tournament COVID-19 Medical Group and the IIHF Medical Committee, the IIHF Council has decided that, due to the ongoing spread of COVID-19 and the Omicron variant, the 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship will be cancelled to ensure the health and safety of all participants," the IIHF said Wednesday in a statement.
After two days of games, players testing positive for COVID-19 had put defending champion United States, Russia, and Czechia into mandatory quarantines.
“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,” IIHF president Luc Tardif said in the statement.
“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. Unfortunately, this was not enough. We now have to take some time and focus on getting all players and team staff back home safely.”
Canada was scheduled to play its third preliminary-round game against Germany on Wednesday night.
“Hockey Canada has worked tirelessly since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure it would be equipped to host world-class, international events in a safe and healthy environment," Hockey Canada said in a statement.
"Despite our best efforts, and continually adapting and strengthening protocols, we have unfortunately fallen short of our goal of completing the 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship and handing out medals on Jan. 5 due to the challenges of the current COVID-19 landscape.
"Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have always made the health and safety of event participants and the community at large a priority, and given the news that we have encountered positive cases within the World Juniors environment, we understand and support the decision to cancel the remainder of the event. Although we know this is the right decision, we sympathize with all participants who have earned the opportunity to represent their countries on the world stage and that will not be able to realize that dream in its entirety.”
Teams arrived in Alberta on Dec. 15. Players were quarantined and were tested before being allowed to skate.
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.
Protocols for the 2022 world under-20 championship were established before a surge of the Omicron variant caused the cancellation of six other tournaments in January, Tardif said in an interview posted on the IIHF website before the cancellation announcement.
"To put this into context, there were eight NHL games postponed when the teams entered their arrival quarantine on the 15th, by the time we had accepted the recommendation to cancel the January events on the 23rd there were 62 total NHL games postponed. That is how quickly the situation has changed," Tardif said.
The cancellation breaks a run of 44 consecutive years of the IIHF's world-under-20 men's championship.
The 2021 tournament in Edmonton managed to cross the finish line, with the United States beating Canada in the final game Jan. 5.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 29, 2021.
Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press
