High school hockey team iced from post-season as RCMP probes hazing allegations

A rural Manitoba high school hockey team has withdrawn from A/AA provincial playoffs and its players made ineligible for their league's post-season awards and upcoming all-star game amid an RCMP investigation into allegations of hazing, CBC News has learned.

"I don't know what to do other than to wait to see what happens right now. Mountain Mustangs are a part of our league. … It's under investigation for the RCMP," said Mike Watson, president of the Zone IV High School Hockey League.

"I heard that it was a hazing type of incident."

The Prairie Mountain Mustangs were knocked out of the Zone IV High School Hockey League playoffs on Feb. 17 but because they finished the regular season as the top A/AA team in the league, they would have been one of the two teams representing the league in the A/AA provincial playoffs in Boissevain on Feb. 22-24.  

The team did not attend those championships and "asked their team be withdrawn from any consideration of post-season awards" because of "an internal, ongoing matter at the school, disciplinary sort of thing," Watson said. 

"I agreed it was the right thing to do."

An RCMP spokesperson said the alleged incident was reported to Pembina Valley RCMP in Carman on Feb. 20. Police say it is alleged to have happened in Winnipeg in January.

WATCH | RCMP investigates report of hazing incident involving Manitoba hockey team:

The Prairie Mountain Mustangs, a co-operative AA varsity boys' high school hockey team in southern Manitoba, comprises students from Prairie Mountain High School in Somerset, Ecole Regionale Notre Dame in Notre Dame De Lourdes, and Miami School.

The team is registered under both the Manitoba High Schools Athletic Association (MHSAA) and Hockey Manitoba.

"We were made