How Can An Overtime Winning Goal Be Six Feet Offside?

The game’s television announcers saw it. The fans in the crowd were aware, and fans watching at home were waiting to see what would happen next.

In Sunday afternoon’s game between the New York Sirens and the Toronto Sceptres, a tightly played 0-0 contest went to overtime, chances were exchanged on both sides, and a wicked shot from Jessie Eldridge ended it at 3:37 into extra time.

However, as the replays were shown, it became obvious that something was off: actually, someone was off – off-side, by about six feet. Eldridge had left the zone to call for a long pass and it came from the stick of Sarah Fillier, catching the Sceptres in a line change. But what should have been a wildly magnificent play was instead wildly skewed by the fact that Eldridge had skated well over the blue line before the puck rolled in to catch up with her.

Screenshots were posted quickly on social media of the skidding puck, the linesperson with their arm in the air signaling a possible icing, and the Siren player standing well inside the zone with the puck not even close to the blue line yet.

There was hesitation, confusion, no signal of a goal, a celebration, a gathering at the scoring booth, and a thumbs-up. Then handshakes, consolation, smiles, and players leaving the ice.

What exactly happened?

It appeared that the officials, including linespersons Jenny Cameron and Patrick Dapuzzo somehow focused more on the icing, and waved that off. But they didn’t recognize the off-side until all four officials convened and realized that they’d missed it.

After conferring at the scorers’ table, the fact that there was no recourse must have been conveyed rather quickly, and, given no other choice, the awkward goal signal was made, and no other coach, official, player, or observer could do anything otherwise.

In the NHL, there is a specific clause relating to the coach’s challenge of an off-side play prior to a goal.

Rule 38.2 Situations Subject to Coach’s Challenge – A team may only request a Coach’s Challenge to review the following scenarios:

(a) “Off-Side” Play Leading to a Goal – A play that results in a “GOAL” call on the ice where the defending team claims that the play should have been stopped by reason of an “Off-Side” infraction by the attacking team

Furthermore, the NHL has a rule that in overtime, the coach doesn’t even need to challenge; the league will initiate a review automatically.

38.3 League Initiated Challenge – In the final minute of play in the 3rd Period and at any point in Overtime (Regular Season and Playoffs), the NHL Situation Room will initiate the review of any scenario that would otherwise be subject to a Coach’s Challenge.

PWHL rules include offside as a non-reviewable play in overtime, presumably to prevent a disruption at the end of a game like we might have had if there had been a coach's challenge, or a “call from the situation room” to send both teams back to their benches to continue play.

It isn’t clear why the PWHL specifically excludes off-side as a play that isn’t reviewable. You could speculate that they want to avoid those delays, and perhaps don’t have all of the camera angles to delve into centimeters of skates being on or off the blue line, but that’s conjecture.

In the case of a game-winning goal, and a large visible margin of error, the most important motivation of any rule should be to get the call right. Clearly, in this case, they didn’t, and everyone should hope that there is a way to remedy this going forward.