Given the chance, John Tortorella would do it again.
The Golden Knights coach unsuccessfully challenged referee Jean Hebert’s call that Ivan Barbashev pushed Hurricanes goalie Frederik Andersen into the net as Vegas appeared to score with five minutes left in regulation in Carolina’s ultimate 4-3 overtime win in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final.
“I saw a loose puck in front of Freddie,” Tortorella said. “Our player stabbed it, didn’t move the goalie and it goes through him into the other side. I’d challenge it 10 out of 10 times.”
The pivotal call took a 3-2 Vegas lead off the board and allowed Carolina to score its third straight goal — in a span of 5:05 — on the power play resulting from the unsuccessful challenge and take a 3-2 lead on home ice.
“The ruling on the play was goaltender interference,” Stephen Walkom, the NHL’s executive vice president and director of officiating, told a pool reporter. “[Hebert] waved it (off) immediately. He believed that it was under the goalie, and the Vegas player went after the puck and interfered with the goalie and his ability to freeze the puck and waived it off immediately.”
Vegas’ Mark Stone sent the game into overtime with a backhander past Andersen with 1:11 left in regulation, but Carolina blueliner Seth Jarvis whistled a slap shot past goalie Carter Hart for the win just 3:56 into the extra frame on yet another power-play goal.
“You’d like to make them pay every time,” Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho said. “It’s a big swing because the other option is going down a goal. But other than that, every time you get a power play, you’re trying to score. So, it’s not that different, but obviously it was a big swing.”
Not big enough to change the mind or Tortorella, who took over the Vegas bench with just eight games remaining in the season after the shocking firing of Bruce Cassidy.
Tortorella, a Stanley Cup winner with the Lightning in 2004 and helming his sixth NHL team, understands why it all went down this way — not that he has to like it.
“That’s been explained by the league, and I stand behind my decision,” Tortorella said Friday.
