The Limited Times

Ice hockey: Mulhouse excluded from playoffs because of coronavirus

3/8/2020, 7:37:17 PM


As cases of Covid-19 multiply in the city, the federation has decided to exclude the local club, the Scorpions, from the playoffs of the

The Mulhouse Scorpions will not participate in the semi-finals of the Magnus League playoffs because of… coronavirus! The championship ended Friday, March 7 in the evening for the team ranked 5th in the regular season. Recall of facts.

The Haut-Rhin team, led 3-2 in their best-of-7 series by the Amiens Gothics, could not play the 6th game on Friday. This meeting was canceled due to the spread of the coronavirus in the Grand-Est. The French Ice Hockey Federation then had to choose between postponing this meeting or sidelining the Scorpions.

🚨 CANCELLATION OF SCORPIONS - GOTHICS MATCH 🚨

Tonight's game against @LesGothiques is canceled.

The press release from the FFHG 👉 https://t.co/9vkMT2uzaI

For the terms of reimbursement of tickets purchased online, a press release will be sent to you in the coming days.

- Scorpions Mulhouse🦂 (@ScorpionsMulho) March 6, 2020

And the body finally decided on the second solution. The Gothic of Amiens being at the head of the series (3 victories in 2), the federation decided to qualify the Picards in semi-final of the playoffs. "The executive office noted with regret that it was impossible to continue the current series, even though all fallback solutions have been considered," said the federation in a statement.

A "material impossibility"

Due to the health situation in the Mulhouse region, where numerous cases of Covid-19 have been identified, the federation considered that there was "a material impossibility of resolving this exceptional and urgent situation other than by freezing the scores acquired in the state of the series ", because Mulhouse could not receive a meeting in his skating rink because of the sanitary situation, and the prefect of the Somme had prohibited the movement of the Scorpions in Amiens.

As of Tuesday, the Gothic Amiens will go to the Grenoble Wolf Burners for the first match of the semi-finals.