CALGARY — The Toronto Maple Leafs have had a lot of success with video coaches Jordan Bean and Sam Kim successfully identifying and challenging goals and they were sprung into action early.
Flames forward Joel Farabee appeared to have the Flames’ first goal of the game early in the first period, only to see the Maple Leafs challenge the play for goaltender interference.
The merits of what constitutes goaltender interference in the NHL have long been up for debate, but the play was successfully challenged nonetheless.
Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube admits he just defers to Bean and Kim when it comes to those judgment calls.
“I listened to ’em,” Berube said as he laughed. “They’ve done a great job. They’re dialed in on it. They study it and they look at a lot of goals that go into the league in different situations. And they’re on it, so they’re looking at everything around the league all the time. And they understand what’s going on and what could be called and what shouldn’t be called. They’ve done a fantastic job.”
Flames forward Jonathan Huberdeau made contact with Woll, which was enough to make the challenge successful.
“I appreciate their work up there,” Woll said laughing, knowing Bean and Kim have helped take away many of his goals over the years. “They help me out a lot.”
The Maple Leafs had one of their own goals taken away before that when John Tavares was deemed to have made contact with the puck on a high stick.
But in the third period with the Leafs up 4-2, Matthew Knies scored Toronto’s fifth goal of the game and there appeared to be some contact between Max Domi and Flames goaltender Dustin Wolf.
After a lengthy delay, the Flames elected not to challenge it. Berube said his side also felt the goal would stand if they did.
“Beaner and Sammy, radioed down and said it was a good goal,” Berube insisted. “They might have challenged it because of the time and the score and everything, just to see what would happen. But, yeah, there was a little bit of play in the paint there. But it was a good goal.”
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