In the fight for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, every point counts. And down the stretch of the season, the Islanders appeared to have snatched a crucial two points away from the Columbus Blue Jackets in dramatic fashion on Monday night.
Instead, a game-winning goal was waved off and the Isles remained outside of the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference with just 12 games to play.
With the score tied and under 10 seconds to play in regulation, Kyle Palmieri drifted from behind the goal to right in front of Blue Jackets goaltender Elvis Merzlikins and was in the perfect position to redirect Alexander Romanov’s shot into the Columbus net for a 4-3 lead.
However, referee Michael Markovic immediately began to emphatically wave off the go-ahead goal, judging Palmieri to have interfered with Merzlikins when the two came in slight contact on the edge of the crease just before the Romanov wrist shot.
After a conversation with the other referee and the linesman and then a lengthy review by the league office in Toronto, the call of no-goal on the ice was upheld.
"If Toronto is afraid to overturn calls made by their referee [on the ice], we don’t need Toronto," Isles head coach Patrick Roy said. "That's all I want to say."
The man at the center of the controversy was more blunt.
"I think it was f—-ing embarrassing," Palmieri said of the call.
The league’s explanation of the call: Palmieri impaired Merzlikins’ "ability to play his position in the crease prior to the goal."
"I don't understand it," forward Bo Horvat said. "I don't understand what's the goal and what's not anymore, so I think that's the frustrating part, is there's no black and white... He kinda clipped the back of Palms' leg and [the goaltender] kinda stumbled but he still had plenty of time to make that save. And Palms a great tip and, to me, that's a goal all day long on the ice.
"I don't know what's good and what's not anymore and that was one of worst [no-goal calls] I’ve seen."