Canada, ROC women mask up on Olympic ice amid COVID concerns

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It’s hard enough facing a deep and talented hockey powerhouse such as Canada in normal circumstances. Try doing it wearing a mask, Russian forward Alexandra Vafina joked.

"Against Canada with the mask on? It was an experience," she said following a 6-1 loss in a Group A preliminary round matchup, which became the first Olympic women’s hockey game to require all players to wear masks.

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"It’s not enough oxygen," Vafina said. "So for us in the first period was pretty hard, but we adjusted to that."

COVID-19, which has the Beijing Games' participants limited to living and competing inside a tightly controlled bubble environment, nearly derailed the on-ice action Monday.

Forward Oxana Bratisheva, speaking through a team interpreter, said Russian Olympic Committee players were initially told the game against Canada was being postponed, before it was decided to push back the opening faceoff by 65 minutes.

At issue was that the Russian COVID-19 testing results from earlier in the day were not yet available by game time. After both teams took part in the pregame warmup, the Canadians stayed in the locker room awaiting the ROC results.

Canada players and coaches wear COVID masks as players warm up before a preliminary round women's hockey game against Russian Olympic Committee at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Monday, Feb. 7, 2022, in Beijing.  (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

Adding to Canada’s concerns were that Russian players were testing positive before and after the team’s 5-0 loss to the United States on Saturday.

The International Ice Hockey Federation reached a compromise, getting both teams to agree to wear masks. The