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May 19 (UPI) -- The NHL retested St. Louis Blues and Vegas Golden Knights players on Wednesday after multiple false-positive test results for COVID-19 were reported from the same United States-based laboratory Tuesday. The league said in a statement that Wednesday's retests came back "uniformly negative," and all impacted players who were initially isolated as a precaution will be eligible to play.
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The announcement came only hours before Game 2 between the Colorado Avalanche and Blues on Wednesday night in Denver. The Golden Knights are scheduled to play the Minnesota Wild in Game 3 on Thursday.
"Those reported results emanated from the same laboratory, and due to other peculiarities and similarities as among the test results themselves, an investigation was initiated into the possibility that the initial test results reported may have been in error," the league said in its news release Wednesday.
"All affected players were immediately isolated and further testing was done involving collected samples. Those tests have returned uniformly negative results, therefore confirming that the initial reported test results were in error. As a result, all affected players will be eligible to play in their team's next game."
The Blues played without standout forward David Perron in Game 1 because of the league's coronavirus protocols. St. Louis forward Nathan Walker and defenseman Jake Walman also have been on the list since last week. All three players will miss Game 2 against the Avs.
St. Louis currently is the only one of the 16 playoff teams with any players on the NHL's COVID-19 list.
More than 100 NHL players missed time in the regular season after going on the league's COVID-19 list. Many teams also had their seasons interrupted by coronavirus outbreaks, including the Vancouver Canucks, who suffered multiple delays and postponements.
