The San Jose Sharks have issued an apology after an offensive message appeared on the scoreboard during Saturday’s Hispanic Heritage Night game.

A photo shared with NBC Bay Area by Kim Tetz showed the message reading, “SJ SHARKS FANS LOVE ICE !! GET’EM BOYZ!” The phrase sparked backlash for its perceived reference to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In response, the Sharks released a statement on X (formerly Twitter), explaining that the message had been “externally submitted” and was mistakenly approved for display. “During the first intermission of tonight’s game, an offensively worded message which had been externally submitted was inadvertently displayed on the in-arena scoreboard,” the team said.

“Sharks Sports & Entertainment deeply regrets that this message, which does not reflect our organization’s values, was not caught during our standard review process,” the statement continued. “The Sharks organization sincerely apologizes for this oversight, and we are working to identify how the message was submitted and displayed.”