Ducks forward Ryan Poehling's overtime goal in Game 4 on Sunday gave host Anaheim a 4-3 victory and commanding 3-1 lead over the Edmonton Oilers in their Western Conference first-round playoff series.
But the Oilers aren't convinced that goal should have counted.
"You guys saw it on the screen. We saw it on the TVs on the bench. I don't know how they see it as a conclusive goal," Edmonton defenseman Mattias Ekholm said.
Less than three minutes into overtime, Poehling fired a puck toward the Edmonton crease. It deflected off defenseman Darnell Nurse's skate and trickled behind Oilers goalie Tristan Jarry, who played well in his first start of the series.
Referee Jake Brenk didn't signal for a goal during the play. In fact, he was positioned along the boards when the puck appeared to cross the line, and no other on-ice official had a closer vantage point.
Poehling said he knew right away that it crossed the line.
"I thought I saw some white [ice] when I was behind the net. Then everybody was celebrating," he said.
The officials huddled together. Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch estimated it was as long as 90 seconds before the referee announced the call on the ice was a goal for the Ducks, pending review.
"They huddled, went to center ice, and then made the call that it was a good goal. It wasn't very definitive," Knoblauch said.
Because it was ruled a goal, the NHL Situation Room had to find indisputable evidence that the goal shouldn't count to overturn the call on the ice. Replays showed the puck appearing to cross the goal line, but the view was obscured by the blade of Jarry's skate.
"It's hard. We were just looking at it, and you really can't tell. You can go either way with it. Obviously, on the losing side of it, we didn't think it went in," Jarry said.
But rather than say there wasn't enough evidence to overturn the call on the ice, the NHL Situation Room instead said it "determined that the puck completely crossed the goal line" in its official ruling.
There was nothing inconclusive about it: The league's decision-makers said the evidence was clear that it was a goal.
Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said "we all knew it was in" when his team saw the replay.
"It was very close. I've seen it before where I thought we were going to get away with it," Knoblauch said. "Where they thought a goal has gone in, and they haven't been able to prove them. I thought that was what the call was going to be, but they obviously thought otherwise."
The loss left the Oilers with no margin for error. After having won the Western Conference for two straight seasons, Edmonton now faces playoff elimination Tuesday night at home.
Though the overtime goal review controversy received the most attention, the next biggest storyline after Game 4 was the health of Oilers superstar Connor McDavid.
McDavid had assists on power-play goals by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Evan Bouchard, giving him four points in four games. But he hasn't nearly been his dominant self in the series, leading to speculation he has been slowed by an injury.
"We're all doing the best we can out there. We're all working. Trying to get it done," McDavid said when asked about his health.
When asked the same question, Knoblauch would only say "most everyone this time of year has something."