The Sharks and Kings were tied at two midway through Game One. The next goal was a big one. Unfortunately for the Sharks, that goal was waved off.
With a delayed penalty coming up to the Kings, San Jose pulled their goaltender for an extra skater. Logan Couture, who had just jumped on, deflected a point shot from Justin Braun. The rebound went to Tomas Hertl, who pushed it past a sprawling Jonathan Quick on his second attempt.
The puck was in the net, but the whistle had already blown. Referee Brad Meier waved off the goal.
The whistle blew when the referee believed the puck had been played by the Sharks with a high stick. Sharks captain Joe Pavelski’s stick was in the air at the time but he never made contact with the puck and he battled for position with the Kings’ Andy Andreoff
It was a tough call. There was a ton of traffic in front of the net and the puck was bouncing around, obscured by the nine guys within arm’s length of the crease.
Sportsnet’s Mike Johnson heard the exchange between referee Kevin Pollock and Sharks coach Pete DeBoer.
“We missed it,” Pollock told DeBoer, as reported by Johnson. “What can we do? We missed it.”
