SUNRISE, Fla. — The NHL’s goalie interference rule sparked another debate during the Buffalo Sabres’ 3-2 win over the Florida Panthers on Friday night.
With 8:22 left in the third period, Sabres forward Beck Malenstyn scored on a shot from the point to give the Sabres a 2-1 lead. On the play, Sabres defenseman Mattias Samuelsson was at the net front trying to deflect the puck. His stick hit the glove of Panthers goalie Daniil Tarasov, and the shot beat Tarasov clean. Panthers coach Paul Maurice challenged the play for goalie interference, but the call was upheld.
Maurice was not happy about it on the bench. And after the game, Tarasov wasn’t shy about sharing his frustration with the call, which was reviewed in the NHL situation room in Toronto. He wondered if the replay officials were upset the Panthers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday night.
“It was contact before the shot,” Tarasov said. “They made the call based on Toronto. I don’t know what these guys are smoking there. Or they’re disappointed yesterday (Toronto) lost. It’s hard to say. I went to catch the puck, and the guy is driving at me. They said it was slight late contact that is allowed because he’s trying to tip this puck. But I can’t even move different way. It’s just tough to reach to this puck. In my opinion, yesterday or two days ago, there was goalie interference kind of with the same stuff touching the glove, and it wasn’t a goal.”
He added: “I don’t know the rules, and they like change it all the time, like every single game.”
After the game, Maurice said he thought Samuelsson made contact with the glove twice, so it was an easy call for him to challenge it. He added that Tarasov gave the best answer and just “ride what he said.”
According to the NHL rule book, goalie interference occurs when either “an attacking player, either by his positioning or by contact, impairs the goalkeeper’s ability to move freely within his crease or defend his goal” or “an attacking player initiates intentional or deliberate contact with a goalkeeper, inside or outside of his goal crease.” The rule also states: “Incidental contact with a goalkeeper will be permitted, and resulting goals allowed, when such contact is initiated outside of the goal crease, provided the attacking player has made a reasonable effort to avoid such contact.”
In this case, the NHL ruled that the contact was incidental.
“After video review, it was determined that the incidental contact between Buffalo’s Mattias Samuelsson and Florida’s goaltender Daniil Tarasov occurred in the white ice and, therefore, did not constitute goaltender interference,” the NHL wrote in a statement.
The goal ended up being a big one for the Sabres. They won the game 3-2 to move up to second place in the Atlantic Division. Meanwhile, the Panthers, who have won back-to-back Stanley Cups, have 63 points in the standings and are eight points behind the Boston Bruins for the Eastern Conference’s second wild-card spot.