Barrett Hayton ran into Sergei Bobrovsky twice in the second period on Tuesday night. One collision produced a goal that stood; the other produced a goal that didn’t.
And in a one-goal game the Maple Leafs lost 3-2 to the Utah Mammoth at Scotiabank Arena, neither play went to a coach’s challenge – Utah let the wave-off stand, and Toronto decided the rulebook wasn’t going to save it.
The goal that counted (13:42, 2nd period)
Bobrovsky made a left-pad save on Clayton Keller, with the rebound kicking out to Andrew Peeke just inside the blue line. Peeke’s shot through traffic beat Bobrovsky as Hayton made contact with the goaltender’s right skate. The officials convened, discussed the sequence, and ruled it a good goal on the ice.
The details that mattered: 1. the contact was determined to be incidental, and 2. the contact came outside the blue paint. There’s no question there was contact, or that the contact impacted Bobrovsky’s ability to make a save, but since the contact happened outside the blue paint, it was ruled a goal.
That’s a Rule 69 interpretation the league has been consistent on all season: goals are disallowed when an attacking player, “either by his positioning or by contact, impairs the goalkeeper’s ability to move freely within his crease or defend his goal” (Rule 69.1).
Contact with a goaltender who has come out of his crease to make a save is the hardest version of this call to win on review, which is exactly what Toronto’s bench concluded in real time, ultimately deciding not to issue a Coach’s Challenge on the play.
The goal that didn’t (17:20, 2nd period)
Less than four minutes later, Utah appeared to make it 3-1, but this time the goal came right back off the board. The refs immediately waved it off, determining that Hayton interfered with Bobrovsky in the goal crease.
Same two players, opposite side of Rule 69. At 13:42, the contact was outside the paint and the goal stood; at 17:20 Hayton was in the crease, Bobrovsky’s ability to play his position was impaired, and the goal came off the board.
Utah could’ve challenged to get the goal reinstated – if head coach André Tourigny felt strongly that there was no goaltender interference on the play. Clearly, he didn’t.
No coach’s challenge was used on either play – the ruling on the second goal was made on the ice and no delay-of-game penalty was assessed to anyone.
The challenge Toronto never used
The loudest postgame question wasn’t about either ruling – it was about the challenge flag head coach Jim Hiller never threw on the Peeke goal. A failed goaltender-interference challenge costs a 2:00 delay-of-game minor, and Hiller explained that his staff’s homework said the odds weren’t worth the risk:
“What I hoped would have been an interference call by the referee. That’s what I was hoping, and when that didn’t happen, Bobrovsky was in the white, but he got wiped right out. And you know, the rule is, it’s tricky to interpret. It really is. And we went through it. We’ve seen a lot of these, and we decided that because he was in the white that we weren’t gonna challenge. But I would have hoped there was maybe a goalie interference call prior to that. But I don’t get to make the call.”
Hiller pointed to the catalogue his video coaches keep of comparable plays and to how unsettled this exact situation – goaltender in the crease, contact outside it – remains:
“Our video coaches, they’ve got a catalogue of all these different ones. They know that one specifically, there’s been a lot of controversy about that one, where goalies have sometimes been in the crease and their body’s been out, they’ve been in the blue paint and their arms have been out.”
Bobrovsky, who stopped 33 of 36 in one of his best starts as a Leaf, kept his distance from the debate.
“I am not in a position to judge the other guy’s job,” said Bobrovsky. “I just stick to the next shot. All I’ll say is it’s unfortunate… The circumstances are the circumstances.”
Toronto’s patience Tuesday night came from a bench that has earned the right to pick its spots. The Leafs have won 47 of their 84 challenges (56.0%) since 2015-16 – 31 of 37 (83.8%) over the last four seasons – but goaltender interference has historically been a coin flip, with just 15 of 45 GI challenges (33.3%) overturned, almost exactly the league’s all-time rate of 34.8%. And while Jim Hiller has yet to issue a challenge as Toronto’s coach, he does have a solid track record: with Los Angeles he won 10 of his 15 challenges (66.7%), including five of nine on goaltender interference.
The Maple Leafs tied it 2-2 on Jack Roslovic’s second of the night at 9:05 of the third, then opened the door for the Mammoth via a Darren Raddysh cross-checking minor at 11:42. “Stupid penalty,” Hiller said. “Let’s call it what it is, and it cost us.” Utah capitalized on the man advantage, with Nick Schmaltz scoring the power-play winner at 13:12.
The Toronto Maple Leafs fell to the Utah Mammoth 3-2. The crew for the game: Referees Garrett Rank (#7) and Chris Schlenker (#3); linespersons Brandon Grillo (#75) and David Brisebois (#96).
