BOSTON — The Boston Bruins disagreed with the officials’ judgment on a failed coach’s challenge for goalie interference, which allowed the game-tying goal to stand in their Game 4 loss to the Florida Panthers on Sunday night.
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The Panthers, who trailed 2-0 in the first period, won 3-2, scoring twice in the third to grab a 3-1 series lead.
Florida’s Sam Bennett scored at 3:41 in the third period to knot the game at two. The Boston bench promptly challenged the goal. Replays revealed that Bennett had cross-checked Bruins winger Charlie Coyle onto goalie Jeremy Swayman before scoring into an open net.
The on-ice referees reviewed the call and concluded that “there was no goaltender interference on the play.” The NHL Situation Room determined that “video review supported the referees’ call on the ice that the shove by Florida’s Sam Bennett on Charlie Coyle and the subsequent contact with Jeremy Swayman did not prevent Swayman from playing his position in the crease prior to Bennett’s goal.”
Boston received a minor penalty for game delay due to the failed challenge. The Bruins killed that off, but Aleksander Barkov’s goal at 7:31 in the third period won it for the Panthers.
The NHL rules state that: “If a defending player has been pushed, shoved, or fouled by an attacking player so as to cause the defending player to come into contact with his own goalkeeper, such contact shall be deemed contact initiated by the attacking player for purposes of this rule, and if necessary a penalty assessed to the attacking player and if a goal is scored it would be disallowed.”
Based on those factors, Coyle and Swayman strongly disagreed with the officials’ decision not to overrule Bennett’s goal.
“My momentum hits him, so he can’t get over,” Coyle explained. “It’s a big swing. They score, tie the game, and generate a power play. We noticed something strange. “They noticed something different.”
Swayman stated multiple times that Coyle hampered his ability to play the puck.
“The truth is, Coyle was shoved into me. I could not play my position. “So that’s it,” he said. “In the moment, I had no idea what had happened. I just know I can’t play my position. And the review demonstrated that.”
Boston coach Jim Montgomery quietly disagreed with the ruling during his postgame press conference.
“[The NHL Situation Room in] Toronto determined that it was a good goal.” That the player did not interfere with the goal. “That’s the explanation I received,” he stated. “We thought Coyle was on top of our goalie, and if he had stood his ground, he could have cleared the puck. This made it difficult for our goalie to respond to puck play.”
Swayman anticipated the Bruins would not dispute the goal unless they saw proof that it should be reversed.
“I know that our guys aren’t going to call a challenge unless they know what’s going to get reversed,” he stated. “Again, I just want to stick to facts, and the fact is that my own player was pushed into me by theirs and I couldn’t play my position.”
The Panthers viewed things differently.
“So I’ll have an opinion and it would be ‘no’ in that it will have no impact on the play of the game and then the player,” Paul Maurice, the coach, said. “The relationship between the two is not egregious, and the play is completed more than anything else. That’s in both the situation book and the [NHL hockey rules] reel.”
Bennett stated that he was not concerned about the goal not counting.
“I was not surprised. “I mean, I think they made the right call,” he remarked. “[I’m] throwing that puck in before Swayman can determine whether Coyle is on him or not, so I believe that’s why it stood. That’s how I viewed it, too.”
When Bennett’s name was announced as the goal scorer, Bruins fans booed loudly, as they had throughout the game. Boston captain Brad Marchand missed Game 4 due to an upper-body injury, and replays showed Bennett punching Marchand in the face when the Boston winger attempted to check him in Game 3. There was no penalty called on the play, and the NHL Department of Player Safety chose not to sanction Bennett.
“It’s just one of those plays where he’s coming to hit me,” Bennett said after discussing the incident for the first time since Game 4. “I am trying to brace myself. I wouldn’t have had time to consider striking him in the face like everyone else.
“However, people can have their own opinions. I know it wasn’t deliberate. As he approaches, I brace myself for a blow. Obviously, he’s an excellent player and a valuable member of the team. So it’s awful, but that wasn’t an intentional punch in the face.
The Bruins said there was no extra frustration because Bennett scored the disputed equalizer.
“I’m not sure who scored goals.” “I don’t look at players; it doesn’t matter,” Swayman stated. “It got in, which is frustrating enough. So, my job is to keep pucks out of the net. So that is all I care about.”
The Bruins will now go to Sunrise, Florida, for Game 5 on Tuesday, where they will face elimination by the Panthers for the second consecutive season.
“I couldn’t be more excited to get down there and bring it back to Boston,” said Swayman. “The fact is that we’re going to go to Florida, play the same game, and get the job done. And I have no doubts about this squad; we have a lot of confidence and determination to bring it back to Boston because our fans deserve a lot more, and we’re delighted to do it.”
