Bruins at a loss after Sam Bennett’s controversial goal stands in Game 4 loss
"I mean, you have to look in the rulebook. It's clear and it's clear there that it's goalie interference."
For the second straight game, Sam Bennett found himself at the center of controversy in this heated second-round series between the Bruins and Panthers.
After knocking Brad Marchand out of Game 3 with a sucker-punch shot against Boston’s captain, Bennett jammed home an equalizing goal on the power play in Game 4 — knotting the game at 2-2 and shifting the momentum en route to a 3-2 Panthers win.
Bennett, who knocked a rebound into an empty Bruins net, pushed Charlie Coyle in the blue paint — with the 218-pound Boston center falling into Jeremy Swayman. With Swayman unable to move back to his right, Bennett had plenty of open twine in front of him to tie things up.
The Bruins immediately challenged for goaltender interference, but the initial call was upheld upon review.
“We thought that Coyle was on top of our goaltender and if Coyle was able to stand his ground, he could have cleared the puck,” Jim Montgomery said postgame. “That inhibited our goaltender from being able to react to playing the puck.”
It was a surprising call by the NHL situation room in Toronto, especially when factoring in Rule 69 of the NHL rulebook on goaltender interference.
- If a defending player has been pushed, shoved, or fouled by an attacking player so as to cause the defending player to come into contact with his own goalkeeper, such contact shall be deemed contact initiated by the attacking player for purposes of this rule, and if necessary a penalty assessed to the attacking player and if a goal is scored it would be disallowed.
Swayman, Coyle, and the rest of the Bruins were at a loss that Bennett’s goal was waved off due to goalie interference.
“Yeah, puck goes — it’s in the crease, I’m trying to make a play and it goes through me. Feel a push from behind,” Coyle noted. “I go down on Sway, and the puck trickles past and right to their guy — empty net. Figured I could probably turn around and make a play on it or clear it.”
According to the league, the shove by Bennett on Coyle and the subsequent contact made against Swayman was not enough to impede Swayman from moving over and getting in the way of Bennett’s rebound shot.
Swayman disagreed.
“I just want to stick to facts,” Swayman noted. “And the fact is that my own player was pushed into me by theirs. And I couldn’t play my position.”
“To us, it was clear that Coyle got cross-checked to the crease and Sway couldn’t move,” David Pastrnak added. “So I mean, you have to look in the rulebook. It’s clear and it’s clear there that it’s goalie interference. That’s why we challenge it, obviously. We have a great video coaching staff and we thought it was a sure thing.”
For Pastrnak, the fact that it was Bennett who lit the lamp after his role in taking out Marchand with an injury further soured a momentum-shifting sequence.
“Yeah 100% I mean, we saw — it was obviously, clearly intentional,” Pastrnak said of Bennett’s punch against Marchand. “Again, from our look, and with the cam footage we got. This is the cards we have to deal with and we have to make sure to regroup and get ready for our next game.”
As expected, Bennett disagreed with the sentiment shared in Boston’s dressing room.
“I wasn’t surprised. I mean, I think they got the right call. I think by the time I’m putting that puck in before Swayman is going to be able to get over there — whether Coyle was on him or not. So I think that’s the reason why it stood.”
Despite the evident frustrations after Sunday’s defeat, the Bruins will have to regroup in short order — with their season on the line in Game 5 on Tuesday night at Amerant Bank Arena.
“It’s playoff hockey, and we better believe it, because it’s reality,” Swayman said. “And the reality is that we’re going to go to Florida, and we’re going to play the same game. And we’re gonna get it done.
“I have no doubt in this group. And we have a lot of confidence, and a lot of motivation to bring it back to Boston, because our fans deserve a lot better. And we’re excited to do that.”
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