This is the busiest season in local hockey, what with playoffs in the East Coast senior, St. John’s junior and provincial major midget leagues, other ongoing provincial AAA and AA championships, and preparations for the Easter minor tournaments and teams representing Newfoundland and Labrador at Atlantic regional and, perhaps, national events.
All that came to a halt late Thursday night with the sports’ national governing body issuing a statement saying all Hockey Canada-sanctioned games and competitions were being cancelled as of today because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“Without question, this is an unprecedented period of difficulty for the sports world,” began the statement.
“The health and safety of all participants in sport, including players, coaches, staff, officials, fans, family, volunteers and the general public, is of the utmost importance to Hockey Canada.
“After much consultation with the Hockey Canada membership, our chief medical officer and public health officials, the Hockey Canada Board of Directors has made the decision to cancel all Hockey Canada-sanctioned activities, including our national championships, until further notice, effective Friday, March 13, 2020.
“We recognize the tremendous effort that has been put forth all year by individuals across the country as they participate in Canada’s game. Although it is difficult to process the hockey season ending abruptly, we feel this is the best course of action in order to do our part in keeping our country safe.”
Among the events that would be affected are the U Sports national men’s and women’s university hockey championships that began Thursday. Newfoundlanders Tyler Boland (UNB) and Joel Bishop (Saint Mary’s) of St. John’s and Cody Drover (University of Ottawa) of Grand Falls-Windsor) were competing in the men’s event in Halifax, while Jolena Gillard (UPEI) of Deer Lake was to play in the women’s competition in Charlottetown, P.E.I.
Hockey Canada wasn’t the only national sports organization to make such an announcement Thursday.
Curling Canada said it was cancelling the national men’s and women’s senior championships, as well as the mixed doubles championship that were have begun Sunday and Monday in Portage la Prairie, Man.
Newfoundland and Labrador was to have been represented by rinks skipped by Laura Phillips from St. John’s (senior women’s) and Keith Ryan (senior men), as well as the mixed doubles team of Mackenzie Mitchell and Greg Smith.
The national wheelchair curling championship set for late April in Quebec has also been cancelled.
However, the national U Sports curling championships, which began earlier this week in Portage la Prairie, continued on Thursday. That event, where the Daniel Bruce-skipped Memorial Sea-Hawks are competing, is scheduled to end Sunday.
Meanwhile, the world women’s curling championship in Prince George, B.C., has ben cancelled, with a decision still to be made about the world men’s championship set to begin later this month in Scotland, where Brad Gushue and his St. John’s rinks would be Canada’s entry.
Games in national university volleyball championships were played Thursday. That includes the CCAA (small college) women;s championship in Quebec City, where the Holland College Hurricanes of P.E.I., including Zayley Murohy of C.B.S., were entered, and the U Sports women's championship in Calgary, where the AUS is represented by the Dalhousie Tigers, whose roster includes Sarah Dawe of Mount Pearl.
However, the decision was made to keep fans out of both events.
Twitter: @telysports
