Bruins’ Zacha is awarded a reviewed goal with most of Rangers in locker room at end of 1st period
BOSTON (AP) — Bruins forward Pavel Zacha was awarded a delayed goal after a replay review while most of the New York Rangers players were in the locker room on Saturday, thinking the first period in Boston’s 10-2 romp was over.
Zacha scored three goals and Marat Khusnutdinov had four to become the first Bruins teammates ever to record a hat trick in the same game at home. It was the first time since 1964 that Boston had two players record a hat trick in the same game.
But it was Zacha’s second goal that caused a strange moment in the game.
With Boston skating on a two-man, power-play advantage, Zacha took a shot from the right circle and the puck trickled behind goaltender Jonathan Quick, where defenseman Braden Schneider swept it clear from the crease before it crossed the goal line.
Or did he?
The final seconds of the period ticked away, and most of the Rangers left the ice when the horn sounded. There were just a couple of players near the bench. Most of the Bruins players hung around their bench while the referees reviewed the play on a tablet near the penalty boxes.
“When I saw the bench, they kind of told me to stay on the ice, that it was in already when I was skating by the bench,” Zacha said. “I kind of knew skating by the bench that it was in.”
The national TV broadcast had even returned to the studio when an announcement was made by one of the two referees that the puck had indeed crossed the goal line, giving Zacha his second goal of the game to make it 3-1.
“That’s why we have two video coaches in the room,” Bruins coach Marco Strum said. “They caught it right away. The play was still going on and we already knew it was in the net, so we just wanted to make sure. That’s why we all stayed because we already knew before that it (crossed) the line. Good on our guys to catch that right away.”
The clock was reset to 32.9 seconds and the officials had to wait for New York’s players to trickle back to the bench, some to come onto the ice and Quick to go back into the goal before the puck was dropped for a faceoff, and then the period was actually completed.
Midway into the second period, Zacha beat Quick with a wrister to complete his hat trick and give the Bruins a 6-1 lead.
The only delay this time was for a slew of hats that had to be cleaned off the ice for the celebration.
“In a perfect world it’s not a goal, but it is — it’s not like they got something for free,” New York’s Mika Zibanejad said. “It was in.”
Zacha and Khusnutdinov became the first teammates to each record their first NHL hat trick in a game since Pascal Dupuis and Petr Sykora did it with Pittsburgh on Dec. 11, 2008.
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