Replay challenge goes Sabres way on go-ahead goal in Florida
Beck Malenstyn: "It's such a grey area and we've seen calls go both ways. They're trying to protect goalies. We want to see goals. It's easy to argue both ways."
The Buffalo Sabres were relieved. The Florida Panthers were furious. The way goalie interference calls have gone this year in the NHL, it would have been no surprise to see the opposite reactions Friday night in Amerant Bank Arena.
The Sabres were more than happy things went their way for once on one of these reviews as Beck Malenstyn's go-ahead goal with 8:22 left was allowed to stand and put Buffalo ahead for keeps in its 3-2 victory over the Florida Panthers.
Think back to November when it seemed like every one of these challenges went against Buffalo. Not this time.
Sabres winger Beck Malenstyn, who scored the go-ahead goal Friday at Florida, looks on during practice last week in at LECOM Harborcenter.
Joed Viera/Buffalo News
Defenseman Mattias Samuelsson was crashing the crease looking for a deflection but never entered the blue paint. Tarasov reached out and stabbed at the puck with his glove and missed it. He said it was because he was interfered with.
Panthers coach Paul Maurice immediately challenged for goalie interference and the sellout crowd of 19,873 had to wait for a decision out of the NHL Situation Room in Toronto.
Good goal. Television cameras caught Maurice's furious reaction on the bench. Several Panthers pounded the boards with their sticks in frustration.
The Situation Room called the contact "incidental" and said the goal stood because Tarasov reached into the white ice and there was not contact in the blue paint.
The main characters reacted as you might expect:
Malenstyn: "It's such a grey area and we've seen calls go both ways. They're trying to protect goalies. We want to see goals. It's easy to argue both ways."
Tarasov: "I don’t know what these guys are smoking there (in the Situation Room). Are they disappointed about yesterday's loss (by the Toronto Maple Leafs in Florida)? I don't know. It's hard to say. ... They said it was slightly contact that's allowed because he's trying to tip this puck. But I can't even move a different way and he just stopped me to reaching this puck."
Maurice: "I thought (Samuelsson) is riding the glove and made contact with it twice. So for me, that one was pretty quick and pretty easy. I didn't really spend much time thinking about it. ... They felt it was more incidental. I think 'Terry' (Tarasov) gave you probably the best answer. Just ride what he said."
Sabres coach Lindy Ruff: "When I looked at it, I thought it was a goal. Maybe I'm biased but he wasn't in the crease. His stick was out in front trying to deflect it and their goalie was reaching for it. I thought the longer the review went, the more it was in our favor. Because if it was clear-cut, they would have made a decision a lot quicker."
On one point, based on what the Sabres have seen this season, both sides can agree with Tarasov's final salvo: "The rules, they change it all the time every single game."
Malenstyn gave Buffalo the lead with his fifth goal of the season. He credited a deft line change from Josh Doan for getting him on to the ice and into the play to take Josh Norris' pass.
"When you have that kind of late change when the rush is already happening, you might just kind of get lost in coverage a little bit," Malenstyn said. "As soon as I got it, I just tried to get it through. Nothing crazy. Put the head down, hit it hard and happy to see it go in."
Tough matchups
Alex Tuch scored the game's first goal on a power play at 17:48 of the first period off a Ryan McLeod feed. In his postgame chat, Tuch saluted the way his team has quickly come out of the Olympic break with two wins after the ugly 5-2 loss Feb. 5 to Pittsburgh left Buffalo 1-2-1 in its final four games prior to the break."It's really tough to match up against our team right now," said Tuch. "That's what you need to be successful in the regular season and that's what you need to be successful in the playoffs too.
"I really liked the effort from everybody. I thought everybody was going tonight. Everyone was backchecking, everyone's forechecking. Guys are making really good plays. And I thought everyone wanted the puck out there."
Numbers games
- The Sabres improved to 15-2-1 in their last 18 on the road and have an eight-game point streak away from KeyBank Center (7-0-1). The franchise record is their 10-game road winning streak that opened the 2006-07 season.
- Goalie Alex Lyon made 27 saves, including several difficult ones in the first period. His franchise-record nine straight wins on the road are two shy of the all-time NHL record of 11 set by San Jose's Evgeni Nabakov (2009-10) and Minnesota's Devan Dubynk (2014-15).
- Owen Power played his 300th career game. With 105 assists, he joins Phil Housley (193), Rasmus Dahlin (143) and Richie Dunn (102) as the only defensemen in franchise history to eclipse 100 assists in their first 300 career games.
- Tuch had game-high totals of six shots on goal and 10 attempts. He had no goals in his previous five games dating to his Jan. 29 hat trick against Los Angeles.