The San Jose Sharks were at the centre of another important call (or in this case, non-call) by the officials in Game 2 of their second round series against Colorado.
With less than four minutes remaining in the second period and the game tied 1-1, Avalanche defenceman Nikita Zadorov sent the puck to the other end and it looked as though icing may be called on the play. But as a chase for the puck ensued, Mikko Rantanen was making up ground on Marc-Edouard Vlasic and the linesman decided to wave it off instead.
Seconds later, Colorado scored to take a 2-1 lead.
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“I’m taking the high road. Waiting for the apology tomorrow,” Vlasic said after the game. He was, of course, referring to the controversial major penalty given to Vegas in Game 7 of their first-round series with the Sharks that completely altered the course of the game. Golden Knights GM George McPhee later said the league had reached out to apologize for the wrong call.
Screen shots circulated on social media after the play, showing that Vlasic did beat Rantanen to the end zone face-off dot. And while that is the point at which a linesman has to make a decision on whether or not to call icing, it’s not as simple as racing to the dot.
From the NHL Rulebook, on icing:
81.1 Icing – For the purpose of interpretation of the rule, there are two judgments required for “icing the puck”. The Linesman must first determine that the puck will cross the goal line. Once the Linesman determines that the puck will cross the goal line, icing is completed upon the determination as to which player (attacking or defending) would first touch the puck. This decision by the Linesman will be made by no later than the instant the first player reaches the end zone faceoff dots with the player’s skate being the determining factor…
For clarification, the determining factor is which player would first touch the puck, not which player would first reach the end zone faceoff dots.
So although Vlasic beat Rantanen to the faceoff dot, if you look at the entire chase (see the video atop this page), Rantanen was coming in faster and making up ground. If the linesman makes a determination that Rantanen was going to get the the puck first, he can wave off icing and that appears to be the case here.
Sharks coach Pete DeBoer didn’t outwardly disagree with Vlasic’s opinion of the play, but put the onus on the players to make sure the linesmen don’t even have a decision to make.
“Whether or not I thought it was doesn’t matter,” he said. “Our players did. They let up. They relaxed for a minute, and it obviously wasn’t. So the lesson in that was don’t assume anything in the playoffs. Play and make sure.”
Avalanche coach Jared Bednar cited a similar play in Game 1 of the series, which the Sharks benefitted from.
“It was the exact same as the icing here the other night, when (Erik) Karlsson had the inside track on (J.T.) Compher,” Bednar said. “They’re in a race. They blow it down for icing because Karlsson had the inside path. To me, on this one, I’m watching Mikko (Rantanen) go up the ice, he’s got a head of steam, he’s getting to the right area, he’s got the inside path on Vlasic on the post. It looks to me like Mikko’s going to get there first, so they let it go. To me, it’s similar plays: The guy on the inside got the call. One was against us. One was in our favour.”
Colorado added another goal 10:10 into the third period to take a 3-1 lead and the teams exchanged goals over the final five minutes of regulation as Colorado won the game 4-3.
Now tied 1-1, the series shifts to Colorado for Game 3 on Tuesday.
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