{"id":595482,"date":"2026-04-10T20:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T20:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/595482\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T20:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T20:12:11","slug":"soo-jr-greyhounds-of-northern-ontario-hockey-league-forced-to-forfeit-title-game-over-messy-dressing-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/595482\/","title":{"rendered":"Soo Jr. Greyhounds of northern Ontario hockey league forced to forfeit title game over messy dressing room"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A youth hockey team in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., says it was forced to forfeit a league championship-deciding game after being accused of leaving its dressing room in a messy state.<\/p>\n

The Soo Jr. Greyhounds, an under-18 AA team, were scheduled to play the final match of their best-of-three series against the Copper Cliff Reds at the community centre in Blind River two weekends ago. The teams compete in the Nickel District Minor Hockey League.<\/p>\n

But after Game 2, the Jr. Greyhounds received an email from the Northern Ontario Hockey Association (NOHA), stating Game 3 was being postponed due to the condition of their dressing room.<\/p>\n

Within 48 hours of that message, the Jr. Greyhounds said the NOHA sent a followup email that escalated the postponement to a forced forfeit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe league said the cancellation set in motion a chain of events that ultimately made it impossible for the series to be completed,\u201d said Lindsay Fera, the team’s manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis occurred without ever speaking to the team. I find that concerning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ExteriorThe Blind River Community Centre is where the Jr. Greyhounds and Copper Cliff were competing in the regional championship.<\/p>\n

(Google Maps)<\/p>\n

For now, Copper Cliff has been awarded the regional championship and is set to go on to compete in next weekend\u2019s provincial tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Jr. Greyhounds say they’re appealing the NOHA’s decision to Hockey Canada.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Room was ‘untidy,’ not vandalized, team manager says<\/p>\n

Fera said her team accepted full responsibility for the unorganized dressing room and issued an apology to the Town of Blind River.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the room was certainly untidy with water bottles, a towel and some hockey tape, it definitely wasn\u2019t damaged or vandalized,” said Fera.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA simple phone call certainly could have resulted in the players returning immediately or arriving early the next morning to clean their room \u2014 but the team was never contacted.\u201d<\/p>\n

NOHA has declined to comment, saying \u201cthe matter is under appeal.\u201d <\/p>\n

According to Fera, NOHA has also suspended contact with the team because the matter \u201crelates to a game outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blind River Mayor Sally Hagman said the town and arena staff received a letter from a Jr. Greyhounds player on behalf of the team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognize our actions created unnecessary work for arena staff who spent additional time cleaning up after us, which never should have been their responsibility,\u201d the letter read. \u201cWe are deeply sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hagman said she was impressed by the letter and has accepted the team\u2019s apology.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"PictureBlind River Mayor Sally Hagman, who has three children in hockey, says she feels for a team that’s had its season end by forfeit. (Town of Blind River)<\/p>\n

Although the town has no say over the forfeit decision, Hagman said she felt sorry for the Jr. Greyhounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s ultimately not the town\u2019s decision. As a facility, we have to respect [NOHA\u2019s] decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fera said the town has offered up its arena if the decisive third game eventually gets the green light. <\/p>\n

They\u2019re equipped to accept a loss on the ice, but they\u2019re not equipped to deal with a season that just ends via email \u2014 especially when they\u2019ve done what they can to own the situation and rectify it.- Lindsay Fera, Soo Jr. Greyhounds’ team manager<\/p>\n

The Jr. Greyhounds’ team manager noted that a Hockey Canada decision could take weeks \u2014 well after the provincial championship is set to wrap up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re equipped to accept a loss on the ice, but they\u2019re not equipped to deal with a season that just ends via email \u2014 especially when they\u2019ve done what they can to own the situation and rectify it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a media release this week, assistant captain Adam Stevens said this was the final opportunity for many of his teammates to compete together.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want the chance to represent ourselves, our team and the game of hockey in the right way,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was exciting to be going into Game 3 of a tied three-game series for the championship and we were ready to accept the outcome \u2014 win or lose.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-595482","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}