P.E.I. hockey game comes to early end after linesmen try to repair ice
A Quebec Major Junior Hockey League game in P.E.I. came to an abrupt end when a logo in the ice became dislodged.
The Islanders were playing the Baie-Comeau Drakkar at the Eastlink Centre in Charlottetown on Friday.
Late into the third period, a piece of the centre's logo, which sits under the ice, became dislodged.
One of the linesmen stepped in, trying to cut it with scissors.
A second linesmen pulled at the logo and ended up ripping the whole thing up.
"Their job is to fix the ice if anything kind of minor happens, and something minor turned into something major," said Craig Foster, director of operations for the Islanders.
Photi Sotiropoulos, a spokesperson for the league, said the incident was isolated — and the first of its kind that he has heard of.
"I'm pretty sure the [official] meant well by trying to cut the logo that was protruding, but obviously ended up ripping up a bit more than he had planned," he said.
Video of the game from Eastlink shows coaching staff laughing as they wait to find out if the game will go on.
There were only four-and-a half minutes left in the game, so the league made the call to end it.
It was good news for the Islanders, who were two points up and took the win.
Foster said he doesn't blame the linesmen — the ice on top of the logos is kept thin, to keep the logos looking crisp.
"It's something probably he hadn't seen very often," he said. "It's kind of just an unfortunate mistake."
He said the team staff met Wednesday to talk about facility maintenance and how to prevent something similar from happening in the future.
It didn't take long to repair the rink. The team was back on the ice the following day.
