An ice hockey match at the Winter Olympics in Beijing was delayed for an hour on Monday before players returned to the ice wearing face masks.
Canada’s women’s ice hockey team took on the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) in the preliminary round of the event, however after the ROC reportedly failed to return COVID-19 test results to their opponents, the Canadians refused to make their way onto the ice
The refusal came after six members of the ROC squad had been placed in isolation last week after testing positive for the virus.
As the game was set to begin at the Wukesong Sports Centre the ROC were seen making their way on the ice, however they were not joined by their opponents.
Canadian media then reported that the reason for the absence was the ROC’s failures to return the results of their COVID-19 tests.
An hour passed before the teams finally returned to get the game going, however all players were bizarrely seen wearing face masks under their protective helmets.
The long delay and the addition of a face mask did not seem to hamper the Canadians though, as they went on to record a comfortable 6-1 victory.
They were able to get off to a quick start as Sarah Nurse and Sarah Fillier found the net early on to give them a 2-0 lead.
Into the second quarter it was more of the same for the Canadians, as Jamie Lee Rattray and Erin Ambrose got themselves on the scoresheet to double their lead, before the ROC pulled one back through Anna Shokhina to reduce the advantage to three.
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For the third period the ROC team removed their masks, however this didn’t seem to help their cause as the mask-wearing Canadians scored twice more thanks to Rebecca Johnston and Marie-Philip Poulin to record an impressive win.
The win continues Canada’s strong start to the tournament, after already recording a 12-1 victory over Switzerland and an 11-1 victory over Finland in Group A of the preliminary round.
