Ivan Barbashev’s goal with five minutes to play in the third came after the Golden Knights dumped the puck in from their own side of the red line. Anaheim’s Jackson LaCombe appeared to be ahead of Jack Eichel in the race to the puck but the linesman waved off icing. LaCombe then turned the puck over to Pavel Dorofeyev, who cut towards the net and set up Barbashev for a goal that gave Vegas a 2-1 lead.
Ducks head coach Joel Quenneville was visibly upset on the bench. The Golden Knights held on to win the game 3-1.
After the game, Quenneville continued to vent his frustration while speaking with the media.
“Clearly, I disagreed with the call. And it was clearly icing,” he said, adding that the officials didn’t give him an explanation. “Their guy stopped skating, which really made me annoyed.
“We just scored, it was a huge call and it was an easy call.”
Under Rule 81.1, the NHL says icing is called based on “which player would first touch the puck, not which player would first reach the end zone faceoff dots.”
The rule adds, “If the race for the puck is too close to determine by the time the
first player reaches the end zone face-off dots, icing shall be called.”
Game 2 between the Golden Knights and Ducks will take place on Wednesday in Las Vegas.
