Princeton’s Saturday game against Minnesota State has been cancelled, the Mavericks announced.
The Mavericks do not have enough healthy players to field a full team, Minnesota State Athletic Director Kevin Buisman said in a statement.
“Several members of our men’s hockey team have come down with the flu and we do not have enough healthy student-athletes to field a team tonight,” Buisman said.
Minnesota State coach Mike Hastings told the Mankato Free Press he found out the team was sick on Saturday at 5:30 a.m., and the illness affected around half the team.
“After consulting with several stakeholders, including the NCAA, Verizon Wireless Center and the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, and discussing our options, it was decided to cancel the game,” Buisman said.
” There were several complicating factors in the decision which involved facility scheduling, individual and team travel and the fact that there is no guarantee that we would have enough bodies to play tomorrow. We know that our fan base and those that follow us would have wanted to see the third-rated Mavericks play tonight and hope everyone can understand this difficult situation and the issues we faced in coming to this decision.”
Per Buisman, the game is ruled “no contest.”
“It’s an unfortunate situation,” Princeton coach Ron Fogarty said in a statement. “As a staff, our priority is to the well-being of the student-athlete.”
Minnesota State defeated Princeton 5-0 on Friday night. With the cancellation, the Tigers lose one of seven non-conference games.
Eye on the Tigers 