Marat Khusnutdinov came down the ice with David Pastrnak to his right. He passed the puck over to his teammate, who looked to score the game-winning overtime goal in the Bruins’ Stadium Series against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
But just as quickly as Pastrnak celebrated did the goal get called off.
A late whistle for a penalty on Pastrnak overturned the goal. The Bruins star went off to the penalty box for two minutes.
“I think that pissed us off more than the call,” Morgan Geekie told reporters after the 6-5 shootout loss.
It was a late call that the whistle should have been blown on well before Pastrnak even had to the opportunity to shoot.
“We were all a little bit confused because he called the penalty and we had the puck and he didn’t blow the whistle,” coach Marco Sturm said. “Pasta went down and scored that goal and the whistle went. I don’t know why they didn’t blow the whistle right away.”
The sentiments were shared among the team.
“I already at the red line and they the blow whistle,” Jeremy Swayman said. “I didn’t know why that was called. We can’t control that. So, just control what we can control.”
Charlie McAvoy added: “We’re skating up the ice with the puck, (Jeremy) Swayman is halfway to the bench and the referee has his hand up. And we have the puck so we’re asking ‘on who?’”
The Bruins were able to kill off Pastrnak’s two overtime penalties, but weren’t able to score in the shootout.
While Boston was understandably and rightfully upset over the late whistle, it also understood that the team did itself no favors by giving the Lightning eight power-play opportunities — three of which they capitalized on.
The officials weren’t perfect, by any means. They missed several calls on Tampa Bay and had some questionable calls against Boston.
“We didn’t get any calls,” McAvoy said.
Penalty issues have plagued the Bruins all year. Going into Sunday’s game, Boston led the NHL with 727 penalty minutes. That number ballooned to 752 after the Bruins totaled 25 penalty minutes in the loss.
“I think there’s a lot we can complain about tonight,” Geekie said. “But we kept putting ourselves in the box and it’s been an issue all year.”
Sturm lamented the penalties his team took, but wants better from both the Bruins and the officials.
“We all have good days, we all have bad days,” he said. “I know some of them were not in our favor, I can tell you that. We have to do a better job, and they probably have to do a better job too. Overall, I don’t blame them. It always comes back to us.’
