The International Ice Hockey Federation announced Wednesday afternoon that the 2022 World Junior Hockey Championship has been cancelled due to an outbreak of COVID-19 at the event in Edmonton and Red Deer.
That includes Moose Jaw Warriors forward Martin Rysavy and Team Czechia, who saw a player test positive on Wednesday and ended up forfeiting their game against Finland.
By the time the cancellation decision came down, three teams had forfeits in place -- the U.S. to Switzerland on Monday and Russia to Slovakia, also on Wednesday.
Rysavy and Czechia finish the event with an 0-2-0-1 record, with a 6-3 loss to Canada on Boxing Day and 2-1 overtime loss to Germany on Dec. 27 as their previous results.
Against Canada, Rysavy played on the fourth line with Jakub Kos and Tomas Urban, seeing 8:59 in ice time over 15 shifts and not hitting the scoresheet.
Czechia moved Rysavy up to the third line with Sebastian Malat and Ivan Ivan against Germany and it made for a busier night, as he played 11:15 over 13 shifts, recording a shot in each of the first and second periods.
Czechia was to have closed out their preliminary round against Austria on Thursday.
Canada -- who were unbeaten in their first two games and were coming off an 11-2 win over Austria on Tuesday -- was to have played Germany on Wednesday before capping their preliminary round Friday against Finland.
Rysavy’s return to the Warriors is up in the air pending quarantine decisions, but the team is back in action on Friday when they host the Red Deer Rebels, followed by four games on the road through Jan. 8.
