Rigamarole - A Foot In The Crease - Episode 2.25

www.afootinthecrease.com

If an attacking player has been pushed, shoved, or fouled by a defending player so as to cause him to come in contact with the goal keeper, such contact will not be deemed contact initiated by the attacking player for the purposes of this rule, providing the attacking player has made a reasonable effort to avoid such contact. Article 69.1 under Section 9 of the Official 2006-2007 edition NHL rulebook or the part of the rulebook Kerry Fraser has not yet got around to reading.

Let’s relate this to the incident Thursday night using only fact. Ponikarovsky fighting to establish position in the goal mouth is knocked into Rick Dipietro by Islander defenseman Brendan Witt. Ponikarovsky, aware of his contact, albeit forced contact with the netminder, immediately scrambles to his feet and vacates the goal crease area. During the exchange, Ponikarovsky’s stick becomes lodged between the legs of Dipietro. He attempts to dislodge it but Dipietro keeps his legs squeezed together preventing Ponikarovsky from doing so. Seconds later the puck was fired into the net. By this time, Ponikarovsky had long since departed the goal crease save for his stick which Dipietro would not let go of.

The ruling was no goal and no penalty due to incidental, inadvertent contact with the goaltender. Taking the sequence of events and relating them to the wording of the aforementioned rule, I don’t know what Ponikarovsky could have done to further satisfy these criteria. Dipietro seemed more intent on milking this contact to draw a penalty.

To make that kind of a call in a game as important as that was for both teams is questionable unto itself. I would be less angry had Ponikarovsky been assessed a penalty. As it was, to me it seemed like Kerry Fraser just arbitrarily decided he didn’t like the goal so it won’t count. 14 years later, the Leafs were Frasered again! But hey, all that was just rigamarole.