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WHL suspends season, joins rest of CHL, NHL, MLB, NBA.

The entire sports world is going quiet, a possibly for a long time.

The Western Hockey League has paused its season, joining several other sports leagues around the world to do the same.

The Lethbridge Hurricanes were scheduled to play two games against Edmonton this weekend, with five game total before playoffs.

The decision was made after the WHL spoke its governors Thursday (Mar. 12). Prior to that, the commissioners of the WHL, QMJHL, and OHL met to discuss the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

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The Canadian Hockey League says the 2019-20 season and all hockey activity “shall be paused immediately until further notice.”

CHL President Dan MacKenzie with Commissioners David Branch, Gilles Courteau, and Ron Robison have been monitoring the situation in regards to the coronavirus including what local, provincial, and federal health agencies have recommended.

Meanwhile, the National Hockey League pulled the plug on its season as well with no word of when or even if the season will continue. Major League Baseball issued statement saying it’s pausing spring training and pushing back the start of the MLB season for at least two weeks.

The moves by all major professional sports leagues were made after a player with the NBA’s Utah Jazz tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday.

Patrick Siedlecki
Patrick Siedlecki
Pat has been a mainstay in the CJOC News department from the time the station launched in 2007. He's been in the position of News Director since then and has been anchoring daily news casts as well as reporting and working behind the scenes. Community is important to him and keeping CJOC listeners and readers informed about what's happening across southern Alberta and beyond. Pat has been in radio broadcasting for the past 24 years, starting in Port Alberni on Vancouver Island in 1997 and then moving up island to Nanaimo for another few years before heading to Lethbridge in 2007. Pat grew up in the small Saskatchewan farming town of Foam Lake. After high school, he went to Western Academy Broadcasting College (WABC) in Saskatoon prior to moving to the island. Pat also spent several years broadcasting hockey in the BCHL as well as seven years as the radio voice of the Lethbridge Hurricanes in the WHL. Pat has been working at Cornerstone Funeral Home in Lethbridge as a Certified Life Celebrant and Funeral Assistant since 2016. News and sports have always been Pat's passion from the time he was a teenager and he's always been grateful to have had the opportunity to make that part of what's been a fun and long radio career!
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