It’s just been one cancellation after another the past week for the Manitoba Junior Hockey League with half of the league’s teams now sidelined amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The league was already playing without four of their twelve teams as of Tuesday, and the latest blow sees games involving the Steinbach Pistons and Dauphin Kings now wiped from the schedule.
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According to Pistons general manager and head coach Paul Dyck, three of his players have experienced flu-like symptoms and already underwent COVID-19 tests.
As a precautionary measure, the league has postponed the Pistons’ two upcoming games this weekend against the Winkler Flyers.
The three MJHL teams based in the Winnipeg metropolitan region (Winnipeg Blues, Winnipeg Freeze, and Selkirk Steelers) can’t play after the city was moved into the red level on Monday with spiking COVID-19 cases.
Then on Tuesday, games involving the OCN Blizzard were removed from the schedule “due to a public health concern.”
Matches involving the Kings are also now off the schedule as a precautionary measure. Dauphin’s G.M. and head coach Doug Hedley said the team is following COVID-19 protocols after they just played against the Blizzard on Sunday. The Kings were scheduled to play the Portage Terriers in a pair of games this weekend.
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Since last week, the league has had to postpone 16 different games, but there are still two contests on Friday’s schedule.
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