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Rangers foiled by Sharks’ Niemi, controversial no-goal

Antti Niemi, Marc-Edouard Vlasic

San Jose Sharks goalie Antti Niemi (31), of Finland, and Marc-Edouard Vlasic (44) stop a shot on goal by New York Rangers’ Ryan McDonagh (27) during the second period of an NHL hockey game on Sunday, March 16, 2014, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

AP

On one hand, there’s the story that New York Rangers fans can’t dispute: San Jose Sharks goalie Antti Niemi was sensational against their team on Sunday.

They might dispute the fact that he shut them out, however. Consider this no-goal for Carl Hagelin, who was coming off his first career hat trick:

Here’s the explanation via NHL.com’s Situation Room Blog:

At 16:45 of the second period in the San Jose Sharks/New York Rangers game, the Situation Room initiated video review to further examine Carl Hagelin’s wraparound attempt on the San Jose net. No camera angles provided to the Situation Room provided a clear image of the puck completely across the goal line. As a result, video review was inconclusive, therefore the referee’s call on the ice stands - no goal New York Rangers.

With this loss and various tiebreaker situations in mind, the Rangers now dropped out of the Metropolitan Division’s top three, leaving them as the bottom East wild card as of this writing with 76 standings points. One can assume that the NHL will hear more about the goal review process after such a high-profile team was on the wrong end of it on Sunday.

Follow James O’Brien @cyclelikesedins