Ref Sets Up Maple Leafs Game-Winnign Goal By Getting Drilled With By A Clearing Attempt
Everyone likes to argue that the officials are always out to get help from the other team, but you rarely see a team get an assist from a referee the way the Toronto Maple Leafs did on Wednesday night.
Even if it was completely unintentional… probably.
The Leafs hosted the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday for a clash between two teams that are within striking distance of the lead in their respective divisions, so both were certainly hungry for two points.
Entering the third period, the game was knotted at 1-1, and the Leafs made what looked like a costly blunder by getting called for too many men.
So, onto the penalty kill they went. The puck went into the corner, and Toronto D-man Simon Benoit corralled it and made the routine play of launching it up ice and out of the zone.
That's about routine as routine gets, but what was completely out of the norm was that the referee Kelly Sutherland — who was in the neutral zone — tried to dive out of the way of the clearing attempt.
However, he either misjudged it, or that puck had some serious English on it because it hit him and left the biscuit between the red line and the Colorado blueline.
This would normally enrage fans of the team on the penalty kill, but in this case, Toronto's Steven Lorentz was there to scoop it up and he was off to the races.
How about we take another look at that one from the stands?
What a break for the Leafs and even wilder, that shorthanded tally proved to be the game-winner.
I feel bad for Sutherland on that one because 99.99% of the time he's easily getting out of the way of a puck like that.
Unfortunately, this 0.01% moment impacted the outcome of the game… and left him in need of some ice packs.
That game was the first part of back-to-back games for both teams. The Leafs will travel down to Madison Square Garden to take on the Rangers on Thursday, while the Avs will continue a three-game trip through Ontario and Quebec with a visit to Ottawa.