World Juniors cancelled by IIHF amid worsening COVID-19 situation

The International Ice Hockey Federation has cancelled the remainder of the 2022 World Juniors amid rising COVID-19 case counts that prompted three games to be forfeited.

"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," reads an IIHF statement. 

The cancellation comes after teams from the United States, Russia and Czechia all had to forfeit games over the last two days due to positive tests within their teams. 

The federation confirmed tonight's US versus Sweden game would also have been forfeited by the Americans. 

The IIHF says the forfeits meant "the sportive integrity of the event has been compromised." 

"We owed it to the participating teams to do our best to create the conditions necessary for this event to work," said Luc Tardif, IIHF president. 

"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 second-last group game against Germany on Wednesday. 

Hockey Canada issued a statement saying it had "worked tirelessly" to ensure the event would go on. 

"Despite our best effort, and continually adapting and strengthening protocols, we have fallen short of our goal," the statement reads.

"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." 

The tournament was initially scheduled to have at least 30 and as many as 31 games spread across Edmonton and Red Deer.

Only nine of those games were completed and the best-of-three relegation series was cancelled amid rising COVID-19 cases. 

"I cannot imagine how disappointed the players are," said Tom Renney with Hockey Canada.

"We came up against an opponent that was not on the ice, but that was bigger than all of us."

The IIHF announced five positive tests in the days before the tournament, including Swiss captain Simon Knak, Austrian Senna Peeters and an unknown Finnish player. Two game officials also tested positive ahead of the opening game.

Last year’s event was played in a bubble, but was still impacted by COVID-19.

A number of Swedish players tested positive in the days before the event, and Team Germany was left with just 14 skaters for its first three games of last year’s tournament, with one player, forward Jakub Borzecki, having to quarantine for the duration of the tournament. 

The IIHF didn't close the door on the event completely, with president Luc Tardif saying it could be played in the summer, but also that a decision would not come for weeks. 

"I think the organization committee don't want to give up," he said. 

"We deserve that to the young players."