Dec 27 (Reuters) – Hockey Canada issued an apology on Saturday after its players skipped the post-game handshakes following an emotionally charged 7-5 win over Czechia at the IIHF World Junior Championship.
It is customary for teams to shake hands following games at the World Juniors, but Canada skated off the ice on Friday in Minneapolis without doing so after a heated affair that included some pre-game antics, plenty of chirping between players and post-whistle scrums.
“Following last night’s game, Canada’s National Junior Team skated off the ice before shaking hands with Czechia,” Hockey Canada said in a statement. “Hockey Canada takes full responsibility for this oversight and we have apologized to the team, Czech Ice Hockey Association and IIHF for our mistake.”
Perennial favourites Canada, who suffered heart-breaking quarter-final losses to Czechia at the World Junior Championship in the last two years, needed to score four times in the third period to secure the victory in their opening game of the tournament.
Team Canada captain Porter Martone scored an empty-net goal with one minute remaining to give his team a two-goal lead but then was given a two-minute unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for skating past the Czechia bench and tapping forward Adam Novotny on the backside.
Players and Canada coach Dale Hunter have pleaded ignorance for failing to participate in the post-game tradition of shaking hands.
“No one was trying to be disrespectful or anything like that,” said Canada winger Tij Iginla. “We actually didn’t really know we were supposed to shake hands, but now we do and we’ll shake them after every game no matter the result.”
Hunter said: “You know something, though, I didn’t know. But I know now, so there’ll be a handshake (after tonight’s game against Latvia) and I’ll say sorry to the Czechs.”
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in TorontoEditing by Christian Radnedge)
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