Storms, flooding postpone Barons AHL game

OKLAHOMA CITY — Game 4 of the American Hockey League Western Conference final was postponed Friday night due to a major water leak in the ceiling on the east side of the Cox Convention Center.

Game 4 between the Oklahoma City Barons and Grand Rapids Griffins has been rescheduled for Saturday night. Game 5 has been pushed back to Sunday 4 p.m. local time.

The Barons lead the best-ofseven series 2-1.

“This is my first rainout in professional hockey,” said Barons head coach Todd Nelson.

The east side of the arena, the Barons locker-room, east concourse and parts of the east sections flooded.

“At this point we have a facility that is practically flooded,” said Prodigal CEO, which runs the Barons for the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers. “We have to not only take the players’ safety into consideration, but the overall status of the building.

“This building is not in shape to go play a game. We had to make a call tonight and we decided it was in the best interest of the players’ spectators and workers’ safety that we postpone the game and play it on Sunday.”

The game originally was slated to start Friday at 7 local time. With a severe tornado threat in the downtown area, team officials moved fans to the parking lot underneath the Cox Center for 45 minutes.

Fans were allowed to re-enter the arena at 7:45 p.m. but another problem, a major water leak from heavy thunderstorms, further delayed the game, which eventually was postponed. At 9 p.m., when players were allowed to return home, arena workers were still trying to remove standing water from the locker-room.

At one point during the delay, water was pouring through the radio broadcast booth, spewing down the upper deck steps, towards the lower bowl on the east side of the arena.

“Obviously, we can’t do anything about it,” Nelson said. “It was important to get our guys home and get their rest. We’ll wake up (Saturday) morning like nothing happened and get back at it.”