Nobody wants to ever wants a game to end in controversial fashion, especially a game in which a trophy or medal is on the line.
Unfortunately for hockey fans, controversy reared its head into the final of the final of the Women's World Hockey Championship between the United States and host nation Finland.
Finland thought they scored the tournament-winning goal in overtime, but video review reversed the result and the United States won in a shootout.
The entire situation was made even more confusing when a tripping penalty was given to the Americans, but the goal was still disallowed. Monday morning, the IIHF tried to clear things up with a statement on the disallowed goal.
Two IIHF Playing Rules were considered in this instance:
-According to IIHF Playing Rule 186 v. Goaltender and Goal/Goal Crease Disallowed: An attacking skater who makes contact other than incidental with a goaltender who is out of his goal crease during game action will be assessed a minor penalty for interference. If a goal is scored at this time, it will not count.
-According to IIHF Playing Rule 183 ii. Protection of a Goaltender: Incidental contact is allowed when the goaltender is in the act of playing the puck outside his goal crease, provided the attacking skater makes a reasonable effort to minimize or avoid such contact.
Taking these two rules into consideration, the IIHF Video Goal Judge Operations determined that the goal must be disallowed.
During the play, the on-ice official called a penalty for Tripping on the USA goaltender. Penalties that are assessed on-ice are not reviewable by the Video Goal Judge. The VGJ cannot assess or cancel a penalty. The decision to uphold the penalty was made by the on-ice official.
The statement isn't one fans of Finland will be happy with and there will still be a lot of debate about whether the correct call was made, but the IIHF had to make a statement.
It's unfortunate such a historic moment was taken from Finland like that, but both sides of the coin can be argued and will be for a long time.
(H/T: /r/hockey)
