Sabres no goal call, explained: Why officials ruled out Buffalo's would-be go-ahead score vs. Canadiens in Game 7 originally appeared on The Sporting News . Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
The Montreal Canadiens tried their hardest to quiet the Buffalo crowd in Game 7 with a pair of early goals, but they struggled to withstand the Sabres' pressure as the night pressed on.
After Jordan Greenway halved Montreal's advantage in the second period and Rasmus Dahlin knotted it at two in the third, it looked for a moment that the Sabres had taken the lead against Canadiens goalie Jakub Dobes in the latter portion of the third period.
After a brief celebration, officials informed the Sabres that there was no goal, and both teams played on, much to dismay of the pro-Buffalo crowd. The Canadiens would eke out a 3-2 overtime victory, ending the Sabres' best season in nearly two decades.
Here's a look at the rule that prevented the Sabres from taking the lead.
MORE: How Canadiens knocked off Sabres in Game 7
An official blew the whistle seconds before the puck crossed the line, believing Dobes had possession of the puck. That blew the play dead, so the shot by Beck Malenstyn to send it to the back of the net didn't count.
If the puck had escaped Dobes' grasp without a Sabres player touching it after the whistle was blown, it still would have counted as a goal. "If that puck crosses the goal line on its own, without being touched," ESPN rules analyst Dave Jackson said on the broadcast, it's a good goal.
As soon as Malenstyn touched it, the play was officially dead.
The puck was already sliding past Dobes and could possibly have crossed the line for a goal without Malenstyn touching it. With that being said, the puck appeared to have been poked out from underneath Dobes. If it went in without Malenstyn ever touching it, it still might have been reviewed to see whether the Sabres poked it out from under Dobes before or after the whistle blew.
With no goal called on the ice and nothing the Sabres could do about it, both teams played on tied at two with their season on the line until Montreal's Alex Newhook won it in overtime.
