The KHL Refereeing Department was called upon to explain two curious refereeing decisions from Wednesday’s Eastern Conference semi-final openers, with both incidents arising from problems of vision.
X-ray specs needed
During Game 1 of the series between Avangard Omsk and Metallurg Magnitogorsk, there was an episode in the 34th minute where Omsk defender Anssi Salmela fell and held the puck against the ice in his own goal crease. Having studied the incident, the Refereeing Department established that it would have been impossible for the referee, from his position behind the player, to confidently rule that the puck had been illegally held.
The rules state that when any player, other than the goaltender, deliberately falls on, holds or gathers the puck into his body when the puck is in his own team’s goal crease, the referee should award a penalty shot to the non-offending team. If the referee’s view of such crease violations is obscured, however, he does not have the authority to award a penalty shot based on a video replay of the incident.
Always look where you’re going
On the same day, in the 55th minute of Game 1 of the other Eastern Conference semi-final between Traktor and Ak Bars in Chelyabinsk, the Kazan forward Oleg Petrov was handed a minor penalty for interference as a result of colliding with Traktor goaltender Michael Garnett, despite Petrov clearly looking away from the goalkeeper at the time. The Refereeing Department has scrutinized the episode and points out that the goalie was in his own crease at the moment of contact with Petrov, and so according to the rules Petrov is guilty of interference even though the contact was obviously unintentional. Had Garnett strayed outside the goaltender’s crease, however, such a collision would not constitute a foul.
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КХЛ 2008—2021
KHL 2008—2021
All rights to materials posted on the website www.khl.ru (hereinafter referred to as the Website) and which are the objects of exclusive rights, including the registered trademarks and symbolics of the “КХЛ”/“KHL”, “МХЛ” / “JHL”, “ЖХЛ” / “WHL” (hereinafter referred to as the Trademarks), as well as on photo and video images, articles, etc., which are owned by CHL LLC, are protected in compliance with the legislation of the Russian Federation. The placement and / or use of Trademarks and other intellectual property of CHL LLC without the direct consent of CHL LLC are considered and prosecuted as intellectual property rights violations of CHL LLC in accordance with the laws of the Russian Federation. It is forbidden to automatically extract information from the Website by any services without the official permission of CHL LLC. Quoting from the Website and satellite projects of the official messages of the Kontinental Hockey League is allowed only with a direct link to the site www.khl.ru.