The Tampa Bay Lightning didn’t let a failed challenge slow them down.

Already trailing 3-2, the Bolts gave up a goal to Columbus. As Blue Jackets forward Pierre-Luc Dubois skated through the crease, winger Olivier Bjorkstrand fired the puck past a fallen Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Lightning coach Jon Cooper challenged the goal, citing goaltender interference on the play.

 

 

Referees Eric Furlatt and Trevor Hanson headed over to review the play with the NHL’s Situation Room.

The crew in Toronto confirmed the call on the ice: good goal, Columbus.  From the league:

It was confirmed that no goaltender interference infractions occurred prior to Oliver Bjorkstrand’s goal.

It’s not clear whether the Situation Room felt that Dubois did not make contact with Vasilevskiy, or whether the contact we as a result of a defensive push from Mikhail Sergachev.

From Rule 69:

If an attacking player initiates contact with a goalkeeper, incidental or otherwise, while the goalkeeper is in his goal crease, and a goal is scored, the goal will be disallowed.

If an attacking player has been pushed, shoved, or fouled by a  defending player so as to cause him to come into contact with the goalkeeper, such contact will not be deemed contact initiated by the attacking player for purposes of this rule, provided the attacking player has made a reasonable effort to avoid such contact.

Columbus took a 4-2 lead with 10:27 remaining in the third period.

Adding insult to injury, the Lightning also found themselves shorthanded, having picked up a delay of game call for the unsuccessful challenge.

Somehow, the Bolts rallied around the failed challenge.  Maybe they were able to compose themselves during the review, leveraging the de facto extended time-out. Perhaps the players took it upon themselves to bail each other out after the Coach’s Challenge was unable to do so.  Whatever the reason, the Lightning resumed play in control.

They held Columbus to one shot on the subsequent power play, with Tampa taking 6 of the next 9 shots on goal.  Two would go in, tying the game at 4-4.

The Lightning carried that momentum into the extra session, winning the game 5-4 and the series four games to one.

 

Tampa went 3-for-6 on Coach’s Challenges in the regular season. They were 2-for-2 on offside challenges, 1-for-2 on goaltender interference, and 0-for-2 on missed stoppages.

The Lightning also had a successful offside challenge against the Blue Jackets in Game 4 of the series.