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Bruins question why pivotal Panthers goal upheld

Bruins players and coach Jim Montgomery believe officials erred in upholding a Sam Bennett equalizing goal in the third period. The Panthers, who went on to win 3-2 to take a 3-1 series lead, believe officials got it right.

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BOSTON -- The Boston Bruins disagreed with the officials' decision on a failed coach's challenge for goalie interference, one that let the game-tying goal stand in their Game 4 loss to the Florida Panthers on Sunday night.

The Panthers, down 2-0 in the opening period, went on to win the game 3-2, scoring twice in the third to take a 3-1 series lead.

At 3:41 of the third period, Florida's Sam Bennett scored to tie the game at 2. The goal was immediately challenged by the Boston bench. Replays showed Bennett had cross-checked Bruins forward Charlie Coyle onto goalie Jeremy Swayman before scoring into an open net.

The on-ice officials reviewed the call and determined "there was no goaltender interference on the play." The official ruling from the NHL Situation Room was that "video review supported the referees' call on the ice that the shove by Florida's Sam Bennett on Charlie Coyle and the subsequent contact with Jeremy Swayman did not prevent Swayman from playing his position in the crease prior to Bennett's goal."

Boston was given a minor penalty for delay of game because of the failed challenge. The Bruins killed that off, but Aleksander Barkov's goal at 7:31 of the third period ended up winning it for the Panthers

Rule 69.1 of the NHL rulebook states that: "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."

Based on that criteria, Coyle and Swayman strongly disagreed with the officials' decision not to overturn the Bennett goal.

"My momentum hits him so he can't get over," Coyle said. "It's a huge swing. They score, tie the game and get a power play out of it. We saw something different. They saw something different."

Swayman reiterated several times that Coyle impeded his ability to play the puck.

"The fact is that Coyle was pushed into me. I couldn't play my position. So that's that," he said. "In the moment I didn't know what exactly happened. I just know I couldn't play my position. And the review showed that."

Boston coach Jim Montgomery calmly disagreed with the call in his postgame news conference.

"[The NHL Situation Room in] Toronto ruled that it was a good goal. That the player didn't interfere with the goal. That's the explanation I got," he said. "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. That inhibited our goaltender from being able to react to play in the puck."

Swayman believed that the Bruins wouldn't challenge the goal if they didn't see evidence that it should be overturned.

"I know that our guys aren't going to call a challenge unless they know what's going to get reversed," he said. "Again, I just want to stick to facts, and the fact is that my own player was pushed into me by theirs and I couldn't play my position."

The Panthers saw it differently.

"So I'll have an opinion and it would be 'no' in that it will have no impact on the play of the game and then the player," coach Paul Maurice said. "The connection between the two, the contact between the two is not egregious at all, and the play just gets finished more than anything else. That's in the situation book and it's in the [NHL hockey rules] reel."

Bennett said he wasn't concerned that the goal wouldn't count.

"I wasn't surprised. I mean, I think they got the right call," he said. "[I'm] putting that puck in before Swayman's going to be able to get over whether Coyle is on him or not, so I think that's the reason why it stood. And that's how I saw it, as well."

Bruins fans booed loudly when Bennett's name was announced as the goal-scorer, like they did all night when he touched the puck. Boston captain Brad Marchand missed Game 4 because of an upper-body injury, with replay angles showing Bennett deliver a punch to Marchand's face when the Boston winger tried to check him in Game 3. No penalty was called on the play, and the NHL Department of Player Safety decided not to discipline Bennett.

"It's just one of those plays where he's coming to hit me," Bennett said in discussing the incident for the first time after Game 4. "I'm trying to brace myself. There's no way I would have had time to think about punching him in the face like everyone.

"But people can have their opinions. I know it definitely wasn't intentional. I'm bracing myself as he's coming to hit me. Obviously, he's a heck of a player and a big part of that team. So it's unfortunate, but by no means was that an intentional punch in the face."

The Bruins said there wasn't any extra frustration that it was Bennett who scored the disputed equalizer.

"I don't know who scored goals. I don't look at players, it doesn't matter," Swayman said. "It went in, and that's frustrating enough. So my job is to keep pucks out of the net. So that's all I care about."

The Bruins now return to Sunrise, Florida, for Game 5 on Tuesday, facing elimination by the Panthers for a second straight season.

"I couldn't be more excited to get down there and bring it back to Boston," Swayman said. "The reality is that we're going to go to Florida and we're going to play the same game and we're going to get it done. And 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."