For the second day in a row, games at the World Junior Hockey Championships were canceled due to COVID-19.
Following the United States on Tuesday, the Czech Republic and Russia will be out of action.
The Czechs withdrew from their match against Finland on Wednesday afternoon. Then, in the middle of the afternoon, the Russians had to do the same for the duel with Slovakia.
The Finns and Slovaks won their respective matches 1-0 by default. Since it was a preliminary round, Chekhov and Russia could not be eliminated from the tournament, but their ranking would inevitably affect their place in the quarter-finals.
A case in checks
In its statement on the Czech-Finnish duel, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) stated that the Czech player’s positive result in the test for Kovid-19 was the source of the canceled match. This positive case allows the team to move into the quarantine.
According to Brother Bob McKenzie, the detention lasts 24 hours and during this period players are tested twice.
Teams participating in the World Juniors are theoretically limited to bubbles in Edmonton and the Red Deer. They were submitted to detention 48 hours after arriving in Alberta and had to stick back and forth between the arena and the hotel. However, unlike the bubble created by the NHL during the 2020 playoffs, the hotels were not for the special use of the teams and other clients were also accommodated there.
Despite these regulations, COVID-19 was clearly invited to the tournament. The U.S. will also face Sweden on Wednesday night. But two players on the team learned on Tuesday that they were infected with COVID-19, so they withdrew on Tuesday. Obviously, if other players produce positive tests on Wednesday night, the American team will have to withdraw again.
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