Daily Roundup: NWHL holding two-week season, AHL season in question and IIHF bans seven for match fixing
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NWHL holding two-week season in a bubble
The National Women’s Hockey League will be holding a two-week season in a Lake Placid, New York bubble.
With restrictions in place due to COVID-19, the league’s sixth season will be played between Jan. 23 through Feb.5 with each of the six teams playing each other once. It will be followed by a playoff round with the top four advancing to the Isobel Cup’s semi-finals. The season will be capped off with a one-game final.
“The continued challenges brought by the pandemic resulted in a mandate for our league, players and partners to collaborate on creating a controlled environment protecting the health of everyone involved,” interim Commissioner Tyler Tumminia said.
All of the games will be played out of the Herb Brooks Arena, home of the 1980 Winter Games.
This year, the Buffalo Beauts, Boston Pride, Connecticut Whale, Metropolitan Riveters, Minnesota Whitecaps and the league’s newest addition, the Toronto Six.
AHL season in jeopardy?
The American Hockey League’s season is lying in the balance of what happens with a potential National Hockey League season.
New commissioner Scott Howson told Sportsnet’s Mark Spector that he isn’t sure if all 31 teams will play next season, in part due to 12 of the teams not being supported by an NHL club.
“I can’t say 31 teams will play,” Howson said, “but I am encouraged that there is a strong desire for virtually every one of our teams to play — and to play without any meaningful capacity, too. If you’d have asked me four months ago if we’d be playing without fans I’d have said, ‘That would be really difficult.’ Now, I see there is a pathway to do that. It’s going to take a lot of cooperation and some help from our NHL partners, but I see a strong desire from all of our teams to try to find a way to play.
“It’s got to make sense. f we’re able to play it’s going to be more about player supply and player development this year than anything else. Without fans in the buildings, it’s certainly not going to be about any meaningful revenue. So yes, we’re going to want to know what the NHL is doing before we finalize what our plan is going to be.”
Both leagues run into an issue with a closed border. How could, or would, travel occur? What about the Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks who have AHL franchises south of the border in Bakersfield, Stockton and Utica, respectively.
Seven Belarusian players suspended by IIHF for match fixing
Seven Belarusian players have been suspended by the IIHF for match-fixing in the 2019 Belarusian Championship.
Pavel Boyarchuk, Vyacheslav Lisichkin, Nikita Ustinenko, Sergei Sheleg, and Alexander Syrei from Belarus and Stanislav Kuchkin and Alexi Ivanov from Russia are facing suspensions.
The suspensions stem from a match-fixing incident that happened in a game of the Belarusian Extraliga Championship between Mogilyov defeated Dynamo Molodechno 6-5.
An investigation showed each player admitted to having an “unlawful influence on the outcome of the Game, by ensuring defeat of the club in exchange for receiving illegal remuneration,” the IIHF said.
All players are suspended from July 2, 2020 until June 30, 2022.
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