It was a barn-burner on Tuesday night in Calgary when the Chicago Blackhawks came to town.

Before the teams would combine for nine goals and two goaltender changes, though, this interesting turn of events came much earlier  — midway through the first period.

With the teams knotted at one, Chicago’s Brandon Saad nearly converted a wraparound attempt to give the Blackhawks the lead. There was no signal or whistle, and play continued.  The next stoppage of play didn’t happen until the puck ended up in the opposing net.

Calgary’s Lance Bouma fired a high wrister from just outside the faceoff dot.  The shot hit Hawks netminder Antti Raanta in the shoulder and bounced high in the air before landing in the crease and trickling across the goal line.  The goal gave the Flames the lead and the stoppage in play gave the officials a chance to review Saad’s scoring attempt.

After the goal, referee Justin St. Pierre (#12) went over to the officials’ crease to discuss the review with the NHL’s Situation Room. Flames coach Bob Hartley was initially baffled on the review for what was clearly a good goal.  Linesmen Mark Shewchyk went over to explain.

The review wasn’t for Bouma’s goal.  It was to confirm that Brandon Saad’s earlier wraparound didn’t cross the goal line.  Since there had been no stoppage of play in between, this was the first opportunity to review the play.

At this point, Calgary had scored to take a 2-1 lead.   If, however, Saad scored on his attempt, the Hawks would be leading by one and an additional two minutes would have to be put back on the clock.   (Don’t miss Flames coach Bob Hartley having a good laugh at the fact that somebody scored, but that he’d have to wait for the review to determine which team’s goal would count.)

Thankfully for the Flames and their fans, that wasn’t necessary.

From the NHL:

The Situation Room initiated a video review in the Blackhawks/Flames game to further examine Brandon Saad’s wraparound play at 9:16 of the first period. The next stoppage of play occurred at 11:34, when Calgary’s Lance Bouma shot the puck into the Chicago net in a legal fashion. Video review confirmed that Saad’s shot at 9:16 did not cross the goal line, therefore Calgary’s goal stands.

The Flames went on to win this one 5-4 in overtime.