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Ex-NHL ref Fraser: Washington’s series-winning goal shouldn’t have counted

Knuble Thomas

On his TSN blog, former NHL referee Kerry Fraser claims officials got it wrong on Joel Ward’s game-winning goal in Wednesday’s Game 7 between the Capitals and Bruins, saying interference should’ve been called when Mike Knuble made contact with Tim Thomas.

Here’s the play in question:

And here’s Fraser’s explanation:

Rule 69.1 — “Interference on the Goalkeeper...Goals should be disallowed only if: (1) 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; or (2) an attacking player initiates intentional or deliberate contact with a goalkeeper, inside or outside of his goal crease.

“The overriding rationale of this rule is that a goalkeeper should have the ability to move freely within his goal crease without being hindered by the actions of an attacking player. If an attacking player enters the goal crease and, by his actions, impairs the goalkeeper’s ability to defend his goal, and a goal is scored, the goal will be disallowed.”

Mike Knuble was not pushed, shoved or fouled by a defending player so as to cause him to come into contact with Thomas. It matters not if the contact on Thomas by Knuble was deemed to be deliberate or incidental other than a minor penalty that might result. What matters most is that all the elements of rule 69.1 were violated and the goal should have been waved off.

Decisions of this magnitude are never popular but sometimes they just have to be made.

The decision to allow the goal has come under fire from some media members, including the Boston Herald’s Ron Borges (“If Knuble had been any deeper in the crease, he could have taken a swig from Thomas’ water bottle,” he wrote.)

Thomas was less critical in his postgame remarks.

“When [Knuble] got in closer to me it got stuck on his backhand there, so I was just trying to play him honest and wait for him to take the shot,” Thomas said. “I didn’t want to go down until after he released the puck because I didn’t want him to be able to go up and over my pads.

“Then he put it at the net backhand and his momentum continued into me. I’m not calling sour grapes, but it’s reality. It pushed me out of the way just enough to open up the net for Ward to put it in. I didn’t even see Ward put it in. I knew the rebound was going that way, but my head was probably in about his stomach, right?”