{"id":447076,"date":"2026-02-05T14:02:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T14:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/447076\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T14:02:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T14:02:15","slug":"finland-canada-olympic-womens-hockey-game-postponed-after-norovirus-breakout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/447076\/","title":{"rendered":"Finland-Canada Olympic women\u2019s hockey game postponed after norovirus breakout"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILAN \u2014 A women\u2019s Olympic hockey game between Canada and Finland, the debut for both teams at the Milan Cortina Games, was postponed Thursday after members of the Finland team contracted norovirus.<\/p>\n

The decision was made after the Finnish team only had 10 players \u2014 eight skaters and two goalies \u2014 on the ice during a pre-game skate Thursday afternoon at Milano Rho Ice Hockey Arena. The team\u2019s other 13 players were quarantined in the athletes\u2019 village, either because they were sick or were exposed to the virus, according to a team representative.<\/p>\n

Star defender Jenni Hiirikoski and forward Petra Nieminen were on the ice Thursday. But captain Michelle Karvinen and forward Susanna Tapani were among the top players absent.<\/p>\n

Finland\u2019s general manager, Kimmo Oikarinen, would not confirm how many players were actually sick rather than being quarantined for precautionary reasons. He said he could not be sure how many players the team would have healthy when it came time for puck drop, which had been scheduled for 9:10 p.m. local time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really hard at the moment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The postponement quickly followed, with the game rescheduled for Feb. 12 at 2:30 p.m. local time at Milano Rho.<\/p>\n

Several organizations made the decision collectively in the interest of health and safety, according to a statement issued by the International Olympic Committee<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile all stakeholders recognise the disappointment of not playing the game as originally scheduled, this was a responsible and necessary decision that reflects the spirit of the Olympic Games and the integrity of the competition,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

The Finnish team held a camp in Switzerland before arriving in Milan on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The norovirus is common but highly contagious, spreading more easily during cold months and often causing gastrointestinal issues.<\/p>\n

The news comes on hockey\u2019s first day of what was to be a return to normalcy for the Winter Olympics, four years after COVID-19 restrictions kept families and fans away from the Beijing Games. Ahead of the opening ceremony on Friday, athletes from several sports have been reflecting on the differences between then and now, with fans in attendance and little separation between participants and the general public.<\/p>\n

In an unusual scene in 2022, Canada and Russian women\u2019s hockey players had to wear masks during a preliminary round Olympic game due to COVID-19 test processing. Russian players removed their masks after the first two periods after test results showed no one was positive. The Canadians kept their masks on and won 6-1.<\/p>\n

Finnish coach Tero Lehter\u00e4 said most players on his team are getting better, but those who are sick are not healthy enough to play.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s the chance that if I would play them it would influence Team Canada and their health as well,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I couldn\u2019t risk my players if they were ill yesterday to play tonight. Because that would be wrong against the individual.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN \u2014 A women\u2019s Olympic hockey game between Canada and Finland, the debut for both teams at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[5,4,2602,1581,54279],"class_list":{"0":"post-447076","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-nhl","10":"tag-olympics","11":"tag-womens-hockey","12":"tag-womens-olympic-ice-hockey"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116018396766729592","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}