EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Kris Knoblauch continues to make all the right moves on the Edmonton Oilers’ run to the Stanley Cup Final.
The coach who took over in November successfully challenged a goal by the Florida Panthers at a crucial juncture of Game 6 of the final. The offside call took a goal by Aleksander Barkov off the board 10 seconds after Adam Henrique scored to give the Oilers a 2-0 lead.
Officials in consultation with the NHL’s situation room in Toronto found Sam Reinhart was in the zone maybe an inch before Barkov carried it in. The sellout crowd of over 18,000 roared when Chris Rooney announced that the play was offside and waved off the goal.
“You never know for sure, but we felt the puck was still just barely touching the blue line,” Knoblauch said in a televised in-game interview. “You never know if you’re going to get the right angle on the camera, but we felt, what we saw, is that it should be called back.”
Knoblauch all playoffs has pushed the right buttons, whether it be a goaltending change in the second round or tweaking his lineup throughout. Had the challenge been unsuccessful, by league rules Edmonton would have gotten a two-minute minor penalty and put Florida on the power play with the chance to tie it.
Panthers coach Paul Maurice did little to hide his disbelief when the goal was taken down, screaming at officials from his spot behind the Florida bench.
“Huge, obviously,” the Oilers’ Mattias Ekholm said in a televised interview after the period. “Great job to our coaches and video coaches. I know they sit up there and it’s a pretty thankless job to sit there. You kind of have to get it right or we’ll be on them. They made a great call and got the momentum back on our side.”
The Oilers had lost 10 of their first 13 games when Jay Woodcroft was fired and Knoblauch hired. He coached Connor McDavid a decade ago in junior with the Ontario Hockey League’s Erie Otters.
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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL