TORONTO — If you watch hockey for the next 100 years, you may never see an ending like this one.
With the game in overtime and neither team having struck for a goal, Norfolk Admirals defenceman Mike Kostka routinely drilled the puck from centre, high around the glass toward the Toronto Marlies zone.
Marlies goaltender Ben Scrivens, as he has done thousands of times before, left the crease to greet the puck behind his net.
It never arrived.
Just as the puck was about to get to the end of the rink, it hit a stanchion and changed directions.
With Scrivens paralyzed behind the goal, the puck slowly made its way right into the vacated net.
And just like that, an otherwise thrilling game came to a sudden end.
Norfolk now holds a commanding 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven American Hockey league championship series. The teams will meet again Saturday at Ricoh for Game 4.
Programming note: You can catch Game 4 and Game 5 (if necessary) on Sportsnet ONE at 3 p.m. ET
Toronto coach Dallas Eakins met with the media after the game and didn’t wait to be questioned before speaking.
“I will say this before you guys start asking questions; I would rather somebody take a pair of steel-toed boots and kick me in a delicate region than to lose a hockey game like that,” Eakins said. “That is a tough way to lose in the playoffs – on a stanchion – after the boys battled so hard.”
Asked if he has ever seen anything like that before, Eakins added: “I have seen it in a regular season game. You see it in Game 28 of the regular season or you’ve seen guys shoot pucks in their own net, but I can never recall in any kind of league final a puck going in like that.”
Scrivens said he was shocked when he saw the play unfold.
“I was playing a good game and I was giving the guys a chance,” Scrivens said. “Stuff happens; that’s the only reaction I have. It’s very unfortunate and it sucks to lose a game like that, but it’s a one in a million thing. It’s tough to look at it and say I should have done this or I should have done that because I’ve played the puck that method every year. I guess any time it’s on the glass you have to be more careful, but if you watch the replay the puck was almost past the goal line before it hit that stanchion.”
The overtime goal did provide some controversy. When Kostka shot the puck into the Toronto zone, two of his teammates were clearly offside. A replay shows both managed to clear the zone before the puck entered the net. So was it offside?
Sportsnet.ca contacted the AHL, but has yet to hear a response.
Even though there were not a lot of scoring opportunities early in the game, it became obvious with each passing shift it was going to be a goaltender’s duel between Scrivens and Norfolk’s Dustin Tokarski – two of the premier stoppers in the AHL. Scrivens was the top goalie in the league in the regular season, leading in goals-against average (1.94) and save percentage (.934). Tokarski has assembled the best numbers in the playoffs with a 1.63 GAA and was tied with Scrivens with a .940 SP.
So it should come as no surprise that saves and not goals were the order of the night.
The Marlies had a good start to the game, out-shooting the visitors 11-6 in the first period, but both teams retreated to the dressing rooms after 20 minutes without a goal.
Toronto came closest to scoring at 15:12 when defenceman Matt Lashoff fired a slap shot from the right point that beat Admirals goaltender Dustin Tokarski, but hit the post. Norfolk’s best scoring chance came about nine minutes earlier when Tyler Johnson broke in alone, but he was turned back by Marlies stopper Ben Scrivens.
Scrivens continued his excellent play early in the second period. Lashoff stumbled to the ice allowing Norfolk’s Ondrej Palat to break in alone from centre. Palat, who entered the game with four goals and eight points in 16 games, deked to his backhand, but Scrivens followed him all the way to make the save.
Just as Tokarski got a little lucky on the Lashoff slapper from the point in the first period, Scrivens got a little assistance from his goal post late in the second. With 10 seconds remaining, Johnson ripped a shot that found its way through a crowd and hit iron. The play was reviewed and it was decided it was no goal.
The Admirals turned up the heat in terms of their constant attack on Scrivens in the third period. Midway through the frame, Alexandre Picard skated through the crease and tipped Scrivens, but there was no penalty call. Five minutes later Norfolk’s Radko Gudas was tackled by Toronto defenceman Mark Fraser, who was penalized on the play, and as Gudas drew close to the Marlies net, he made sure he got a piece of Scrivens. Again, no call.
Then with 20 seconds remaining in regulation time, Picard once again drilled Scrivens and — you guessed it — there was no goaltending interference penalty called. This time, however, Scrivens got even. Ten seconds later he skated out of his crease and flattened Picard. This time he got away with one.
The Admirals were called for too many men on the ice at 1:12 of overtime, but the Marlies failed to capitalize on the power play.
Eight minutes in, Norfolk’s Palat had a partial breakaway and took a backhander, but Scrivens got his glove on the shot.
Both goalies looked as though they would never allow a goal until the weird one that ended it. Even Norfolk coach Jon Cooper could not believe his team’s good fortune.
“If there’s one thing I can say about this year, and I know it is far from over, there are things from the (28-game) win streak to some of the games we have played, that I never thought I would witness in my life, I am sick to my stomach for Scrivens,” Cooper said. “That was a tough break for the kid. I mean I’d rather it go in our favour than theirs, but in saying that, I thought it may have been a fortunate bounce for us, but I thought we actually earned it. Toronto was clearly the better team in the first period and when we got out of the period 0-0 I told the guys we were fortunate. I thought we got stronger as the game went on.”
NOTES: In order to make room for Zigomanis, the Marlies made tough guy Jay Rosehill a healthy scratch…The Marlies only dressed 11 forwards and then lost rookie Spencer Abbott early in the game when he was hit hard in the Norfolk zone and limped off the ice. Defenceman Josh Engal, who has some experience at forward, moved up to play left wing… The announced attendance was 8,084. The game marked the first professional hockey game ever played in Toronto in June.
