There was some controversy following the Colorado Mammoth victory over the Vancouver Stealth game on Saturday, in which Adam Jones scored with one second left to win for Colorado, capping off a record six-goal fourth quarter.
Before that goal, it had appeared Vancouver may have scored and without any challenges, Colorado could not challenge it. Today, the NLL released a statement about the incident.
With 8:03 remaining in the fourth quarter of the Vancouver Stealth at Colorado Mammoth game on Saturday, Feb. 27, Colorado goaltender Alex Buque made a save on a shot by Vancouver’s Rhys Duch. In accordance with proper NLL game mechanics, the referee blew his whistle during the save upon losing sight of the ball within Buque’s equipment. Upon seeing Buque gain possession of the ball after the save, the official correctly blew his whistle to restart play.
The official turned away from the goal to scan the floor including the line changes in anticipation of the ball moving to the Vancouver defensive end. As a result, the official did not witness Buque’s failed attempt to pass the ball up the floor, which resulted in the ball entering the Colorado goal. The play on the field should have resulted in a goal being awarded to Vancouver. The Buque play was not reviewable because Vancouver had already exhausted its video replay challenges for the game with two unsuccessful attempts.
There’s really nothing that can be done about it now, as the league can’t reward Vancouver with the goal or change anything, but an admittance of the wrong call occurring was expected.
It also appears that Vancouver could have challenged the play. There was some question as to if a non-goal called could have been reviewable, but this release makes it seem like they could have.
