'No goal' was correct call
Goalie Henrik Lundqvist #30 and Brian Boyle #22 of the New York Rangers celebrate after the Rangers won 3-2 against the Washington Capitals in Game 3. (April 17, 2011) Credit: Getty Images
Although the NBC television broadcast seemed to show otherwise, the Rangers' disallowed goal that ended the second period Sunday was the right call.
The Rangers appeared to take a 2-1 lead as the puck careened through traffic in the crease and crossed the goal line with 1/10th of a second left, according to the broadcast. But the official clock showed that time had expired.
"Absolutely no gray area," officiating supervisor Mick McGeough told Newsday. "Straight black-and-white. No goal."
McGeough and NHL executive Brendan Shanahan said that although NBC usually has the official clock burned into its broadcast, it did not Sunday. "I had the NBC people come in and take a look at the play," McGeough said. "When the clock read 0-0-0, the puck was on the line, not over the line. Therefore, no goal, time expired."
McGeough was pleased that he and his crew got it right. "We had such a good angle of it," he said. "Clean-cut, no goal. It is what it is. The system worked very well."
"I was 100 percent sure it was a goal," said Ruslan Fedotenko, who had thrown the puck from behind the net off defenseman John Erskine's leg. "But we said, 'Don't get your head down, let's go get another one.' "
Ref breaks ankle
Referee Chris Rooney suffered a broken left ankle at 3:44 of the second period and will miss the rest of the playoffs.
A connection
The Islanders' Matt Moulson attended the game with his wife, Alicia, whose father, Mike Backman, played for the Rangers. Alicia's godfather is Capitals GM George McPhee, who played for the Rangers with her dad.
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