NWHL cancels rest of season after more positive virus tests

The National Women’s Hockey League called off the remainder of its season Wednesday on the eve of the playoffs because of additional positive test results for the coronavirus.

The NWHL cited safety concerns for what it called the suspension of play inside a quarantined bubble in Lake Placid, New York. COVID-19 instead wreaked havoc on the two-week event.

“We were not trending in the right direction,” interim commissioner Tyler Tumminia said of more test results coming in Tuesday night. “Our actual numbers per se were not alarming in comparison to the scope of other sports clubs or other sports leagues. However, if you project a number that was going to happen, it doesn’t make sense for us.”

Two of the league’s six teams had already withdrawn from the tournament, with the Metropolitan Riveters citing “several” virus cases. Tumminia said the team had 10, which was over the threshold for disqualifying a team.

The Connecticut Whale’s departure was a choice made at the team level. Tumminia said the NWHL would not disclose how many total positive tests it had in what she called a “restrictive access environment” that did not hold up like other pro sports bubbles.

The NWHL had an agreement with Yale University to provide saliva-based COVID-19 testing for players and staff, similar to what the NBA used for its Disney World bubble last year. Even that testing couldn’t keep the virus out, and Toronto owner Johanna Neilson Boynton said, “We knew going in it was a gamble.”

“We stuck by a very strict protocol, and there’s human error,” NWHL Players Association executive director Anya Packer said.

Tumminia added, “Defining the origin and placing blame right now is not really our game.”

Two semifinal games Thursday and the final Friday were set to be televised nationally in the U.S. on NBC Sports Network, putting women’s hockey in a prominent spotlight a year away from the Beijing Olympics.