BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo Sabres had to beat the Edmonton Oilers twice on Saturday afternoon.
Tied 2-2 in overtime, Sabres defenseman Owen Power skated through the offensive zone and beat Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner with a snap shot to score what he thought was the game-winning goal with two seconds left.
Sabres players cleared the bench to celebrate and salute the home crowd. “Sweet Victory” played through the arena speakers as coaches and executives from both teams piled into the press box elevator. Fans started to leave the arena, and players on both teams made their way to the locker room and removed some equipment.
After all of that, officials in the NHL Situation Room in Toronto informed the on-ice officials that the goal was being reversed because of a missed offside call. With 20 seconds left in overtime, 18 seconds before Power scored the goal, Sabres forward Alex Tuch was just over the blue line when Bowen Byram carried the puck into the zone. Even though the Oilers regained possession after the offside, the offside was enough to reverse the goal.
“I didn’t even know,” Tuch said. “I thought it was a little bit too close to call, but I guess the league wanted to give the Oilers another shot. No, I’m just kidding. I wish we would have won in overtime. I apologized to Owen Power.”
Sabres defenseman Jacob Bryson said by the time he got to the locker room, half the team was undressed.
The game-winning play in Buffalo was ruled offsides, so both teams had to return after leaving the ice 😱
🎥@BR_OpenIcepic.twitter.com/CfRwcz53yR
— The Athletic NHL (@TheAthleticNHL) March 9, 2024
“That’s probably the craziest thing I’ve ever seen in a game,” Bryson said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before.”
After a delay, the Sabres and Oilers got back to the benches and played the final 20 seconds of overtime. The game went to a shootout, and the Sabres won with Tuch scoring the decisive goal. Moments before that, he was in the locker room out of breath after what he thought was an overtime win.
“I was sitting down with my head between my legs,” Tuch said. “I was really tired, exhausted. There were guys sitting in there, we had to toss all of our gear back on. I don’t think guys were fully on the bench by the time we re-started. I mean the Oilers, I think guys’ skates were off. They didn’t know. It was definitely weird. I’ve seen it a couple of times, but nothing like that. Two seconds left. I just wanted it to be over!”
Added Byram: ”It was pretty weird. We’re in here celebrating a big win and then we get called back out here. I’m just happy we finished it out and got the win still. It would have been a sour taste.”
Sabres coach Don Granato said he was already back in the locker room when the Sabres video team informed him that the play was under review.
“We waited a second or two until we knew for sure,” Granato said. “Then it was get back out there and win it again if we have to.”
In the Oilers’ dressing room, players were disappointed and peeling their equipment off when an assistant coach came in and informed the team that the game was back on.
“We were looking at it in the dressing room with the video coaches and it looked like it was extremely close,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “Frame by frame, the quality that they get a look at is different than what we get to see. Obviously they saw that it was offside.”
The official NHL explanation summarized the offside rule and noted Tuch “preceded the puck into the offensive zone.” But the league did not explain why the review took as long as it did.
“They probably made the right call on that,” Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen said. “Those are the rules. You have to battle through that. In the end, we got the two points. That’s all that matters.”
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(Photo: Timothy T. Ludwig / USA Today)
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2024-03-09 22:38:29Z
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