Mother Nature brings Sask. Rush to a halt: Lacrosse league cancels Philadelphia game due to extreme weather

The Saskatchewan Rush won't hit the field in Philadelphia on Saturday as planned, after extreme winter weather across Canada and the U.S. caused flight cancellations and delays.

The National Lacrosse League postponed the team's game against the Philadelphia Wings, scheduled for 6 p.m. CT at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, due to the travel issues, a Saturday morning news release from the Saskatchewan team said.

Much of Canada is under extreme weather warnings this weekend, with a polar vortex sweeping in from the Arctic through the West, while a storm swirling up from Texas is wreaking havoc in the East, leaving millions of Canadians facing down snowstorms or severely cold temperatures. 

Powerful winter storm systems are also slamming the U.S., causing widespread power outages and hundreds of flight delays, NPR reported Saturday.

Saskatchewan Rush communications manager Cody Janzen said flight delays and cancellations that started on Thursday left players stuck at four different airports across Canada.

The cancellation of Saturday's game means Rush players are looking at a three-week break between their last game and the next one scheduled — a Jan. 20 match against Vancouver.

The team's last game was a narrow 11-10 loss in overtime to the Albany FireWolves, the top-ranked team in the league, on Dec. 31.

It's unheard of in the league to have a break that long, Janzen said.

"It sucks, that's the blunt way to put it," he said.

"We're coming off of a bye week where … [the Rush played] the best team in the league to a one-goal overtime game — you're feeling good about yourself, and now you get to sit at home for two weekends or sit in an airport."

The decision to cancel Saturday's game came down to player safety and not wanting players to fly in with too little time to prepare and compete, but Janzen said it wasn't for a lack of trying to get on flights.

"[It] started Thursday night with some of the players trying to get on red eyes, trying to get to the locations, or at least a little bit closer out to Philly," he said.

By Friday, there were players spending "most of the day, 20-plus hours, at airports, trying to get on flights — delays, cancellations, all of that stuff."

Only 11 Rush players made it to Philadelphia, which isn't enough to play a game, Janzen said.

The team's news release said a makeup game will be scheduled, and previously purchased tickets will be honoured for the new date at Wells Fargo Center. A date for the makeup game hasn't been set.

Delayed and cancelled flights

On Saturday, about 10 out of 22 flights departing from Saskatoon's international airport were delayed or cancelled.

Airport vice-president CJ Dushinski said the flight changes are a chain reaction result from the cold weather on Friday that carried over into Saturday.

"Planes can still fly in very cold weather, and people can still operate," said Dushinski.

"The point at which it's kind of become more critical is around that –45, –50 wind chill, it's really just equipment stops working, de-icing fluid stops being as effective."

Environment Canada called for a high of just –32 C in Saskatoon for Saturday, with a wind chill near –48.

Dushinski said while most of the airport's early morning flights were cancelled, she expected things to resume as normal with most flights departing on time later in the day.

"We're seeing in our connecting markets like Calgary, where we see a pretty significant cancellation of service from WestJet happening now over the last couple of days, that's obviously going to impact our service," said Dushinski.

She said customers should check flight details directly with their airlines before heading to the airport.