Minnesota Wild head coach Dean Evason questioned the NHL’s review process after an offsides ruling wiped out a critical third-period goal by Mats Zuccarello in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night.
The play happened with 11:54 left in the third period when Zuccarello appeared to score his second goal of the night to give the Wild a 4-3 lead. The Blue Jackets challenged the play to determine whether Wild winger Marcus Johansson was offsides on the play and the review determined that Johansson preceded the puck into the offensive zone without possession and control, therefore the play was offside.
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— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) October 22, 2023
While Evason acknowledged the referees have a tough job and that he received a “very professional” explanation from the refs that the league was “tightening the possession rule up,” he questioned the process and the decision to overturn the play.
“I’m not going to throw the refs under the bus because I don’t know who made the call,” Evason said via Michael Russo of The Athletic. “I don’t know if it’s the refs on the ice, if it’s Toronto, who made the call. But it just doesn’t make any sense to anybody. Like everybody’s just like, there’s no possible way he did not have possession. We score a goal, we [would have] got on a power play, it’s such a big point in that hockey game that it’s easy to get frustrated obviously….I think everybody in the world sees him having possession of that puck.”
The play turned out to be critical as Adam Fantilli scored the go-ahead goal for Columbus at 14:41 of the third period. Johansson tied the game with his first goal of the season at 17:01 of the third period but Jack Roslovic scored the game-winner in overtime for the Blue Jackets.
While the play left the Wild on the losing end of Saturday night’s game, they’ll have to rebound quickly as they own a 2-2-1 record heading into Tuesday night’s game with the Edmonton Oilers.
