The International Ice Hockey Federation has cancelled the rest of the World Junior Championship because of the ongoing spread of COVID-19 and the Omicron variant. An announcement from the IIHF Council says the decision comes following a positive case from a player on the Russian national team, which would have meant forfeiting the Russia-Slovakia game, which would be the third to be cancelled due to positive cases, following the Switzerland-USA game and Finland-Czechia. Because Wednesday’s game would be the third forfeit in two days, the Council decided the “sportive integritry” of the event had been compromised.

IIHF President Luc Tardif says they did everything they could to create the conditions necessary for the event to work, but it wasn’t enough, and now it’s time to focus on getting all players and team staff back home safely.

Hockey Canada President Scott Smith and CEO Tom Renney have the following statement:
“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. 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.”