8. Senators Score a Goal, Get Shut Out Anyway
When: April 26, as the Senators faced elimination in Game 6 against the Canadiens.
What: Trailing 1-0 midway through the second, the Senators scored the tying goal by banging a rebound past Carey Price. But the goal was disallowed because referee Chris Lee had lost sight of the puck and blown the play dead.
So you’ve got an elimination game, a tying goal that should have counted, and a mistake by a referee that wipes it out. Chaos, right? Except … when you watch the replay, it’s hard not to sympathize with Lee. He was in good position, and the puck just happened to squirt loose in the one spot he couldn’t possibly see it. Neither Price nor anyone else reacted as if the puck were free. So Lee did what the rules say he must do and blew the play dead — clearly before the puck entered the net. In hindsight, this one belongs more in the “terrible luck†category than in the “blown call†pile.
The aftermath: The 1-0 lead held up, as Price made 43 saves for the shutout. A last-second empty-netter made it a 2-0 final, ending the Senators’ season and sending Montreal on to the second round.