The Los Angeles Kings defeated the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 in overtime to win Game 3 of their first-round series Friday night, but the game-winning goal was subject to a lengthy review before it was eventually allowed to count.
Trevor Moore buried a power-play goal in close to the Oilers net after receiving a pass from Gabriel Vilardi from behind the net, but the subject of the review was a sequence that happened just before that pass. As Vilardi and Mattias Ekholm battled for the puck in the corner, it deflects up above their heads and Vilardi appeared to knock it down with his stick and then play it along the ice. However, the officials didn't whistle the play dead — despite Connor McDavid raising his arm and yelling for a high-stick whistle — and Vilardi was allowed to set up Moore for the goal.
But, after a long video review, the officials could not find conclusive evidence that Vilardi played the puck with a high stick and allowed the goal to count.
"I saw just in the corner... the puck kinda goes up and it goes off his stick, so I called high stick, that's what I saw on the ice and then obviously they go on and score," McDavid said after the game. "They have that review in place for a reason but I guess they determined they couldn't tell."
Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft said he believes McDavid saw the puck be hit with a high stick.
"It's a play where the greatest player in the world is two feet away as it happens and his arm comes straight up in the air because he knows that it hit the stick, otherwise he wouldn't put his arm in the air he would keep playing," Woodcroft said. "It appears to me in the video that the puck is going straight up in a trajectory and it deadens. In the end I'm going to go with the greatest player in the world who is three feet away."
The NHL added video reviews for what it calls "missed stoppages of play in the offensive zone that lead to goals" ahead of the 2019-20 season. These reviews fall under a coach's challenge except for in the final minute of regulation and in overtime.
Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman provided more insight during a segment on Sportsnet Central after the game. In that segment, Friedman said the fact that the puck hits Ekholm in the back after the apparent high stick but before Vilardi plays it along the ice does not matter — a high-stick infraction is only negated if the opposing team has possession of the puck.
Additionally, Friedman said an anonymous general manager texted him to say plays like this were discussed at a recent general managers meeting.
"And they said we want goals, so if you're going to take goals off the board you better have proof that we should be taking goals off the board," Friedman said that GM told him was the takeaway from that meeting.
The Kings now lead the series 2-1 with Game 4 in Los Angeles set for Sunday night on Sportsnet and SN NOW.
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