Avalanche goal counts after officials correct offside decision
The Colorado Avalanche nearly had a goal taken off the board but the officials were able to correct their mistake after a second look at the play.
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The Colorado Avalanche nearly had a goal taken off the board but the officials were able to correct their mistake after a second look at the play.
The bizarre sequence occurred midway through the second period with the Avalanche on a powerplay. Kraken centre Yanni Gourde dumped the puck into the Avalanche zone and it slid along the boards all the way down to the Seattle end of the ice. Avalanche forward Artturi Lehkonen collected the puck at the Seattle blue line and Colorado set up its powerplay formation. A full 40 seconds of game time later, Mikko Rantanen fired home a one-time goal to give the Avalanche a 4-2 lead.
The Kraken challenged the goal for offside, contending that Lehkonen had entered the offensive zone ahead of the puck. An initial review by the linesmen determined that Lehkonen had indeed done that and the officials announced to the crowd that the play was offside and the goal would not count.
The two teams lined up for a face-off and play almost got back underway, but before the puck was dropped, the officials went back to the tablet to look at the play again.
After the second look, the officials determined that because Gourde shot the puck back into the Kraken zone, Lehkonen was not offside when he entered the zone ahead of the puck. According to NHL Rule 83.1 “If a player legally carries, passes or plays the puck back into his own defending zone while a player of the opposing team is in such defending zone, the off-side shall be ignored and play permitted to
continue.”
Therefore, the goal counted and Seattle was penalized for a failed challenge.
