September 27, 2022
THUNDER BAY, ON
The SIJHL is announcing today that the September 24, 2022 game featuring the Thunder Bay North Stars at Fort Frances Lakers, originally recorded as an 8-1 victory for the North Stars has been declared a forfeit in favour of Fort Frances as a result of a player that was ineligible to compete appearing in the game for Thunder Bay.
The results of the game have been amended to reflect a 1-0 victory for the Lakers who will also receive the two points in the SIJHL season standings.
Conversely, the North Stars’ record has been changed to reflect a 1-0 loss and they receive zero points in the SIJHL standings.
All individual player statistics arising from the game will continue to accumulate towards season totals.
Leading up to the game, the North Stars initiated 11th-hour effort to secure the necessary approvals for one of their players to participate. Having not obtained them in time, the player was initially withheld from the game.
In continuing their efforts to gain approval past the start of the game, they secured what they believed to be verbal approval that the player was cleared to participate, and made the decision to insert said player into the game while it was already in progress.
Following a subsequent investigation by the SIJHL into the matter, it was determined that proper approval had, in fact, not been issued for the player to participate, and the player was never eligible to enter the game for the North Stars.
Upon reaching that conclusion, the Hockey Canada regulations provide clear guidance: “all games won by the team in which an ineligible player participated shall be awarded as victories in regulation to the Team(s) that competed against it.”
There will be no further sanctions against either the player, the Thunder Bay North Stars or its personnel.