If a player is tripped on a breakaway, and the puck slides into the net... [ Edited ]

[KrizenMedina]

... is it a good goal?

I was just playing a regular season game in Be a GM mode, and I was on a breakaway. Approximately six to eight feet from the net, one of the opposing players dived and tripped me. My player fell to his knees, and a delayed penalty was signaled; however, my player kept sliding towards the goalie, as did the puck, which I was no longer in possession of. (obviously) The puck slid through the goalie's five-hole and crossed the goal line, but the goal was immediately waved off due to goaltender interference. Now, my player did bump into the goalie a little bit, but the puck had already went through his five-hole by this point, and it didn't touch him, or my player, as the bump occurred while it was crossing the line. As a result, I did not interfere with his ability to stop the puck, but it was still waved off. Is that the right call? I'm not sure about the exact rule in the NHL about this, and I will look it up, but if it was supposed to be a goal, then I'm curious as to why the rule wasn't properly implemented in the game. (And if it was the right call, then never mind.)

[mikeyflex]

Okay there are a few things going on here. In today's NHL if you score a goal and there is suspicion of goalie interference a coach can challenge  the goal on the grounds that there was goalie interference. So from that stand point (just taking it at face value) that was the correct call.

However, the game itself has a lot of questionable interference calls, I'm sure from what you've described it was a weak call.

Having said that, it is possible for the offending team on a delayed penalty to score a goal, it's happen before. Team pulls goalie for extra skater, puck accidentally finds its way into the empty net. This is a good goal as long as the offending team does not touch the puck.  

[KrizenMedina]

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate it!

I know about the new coach's challenge rule that debuted this season; I'm a Leafs fan, so I've had multiple opportunities to see Mike 'Coach's Challenge' Babcock use it, haha. Even though the challenge itself isn't in NHL 16, I can understand how bumping into the goalie and interfering with his ability to stop the puck would constitute a goaltender interference call.

However, as you alluded to, I've seen a lot of questionable calls in the game, and this is definitely one of them. (I know the game can't be perfect, though) The biggest issue is that my player did not interfere with the goalie's ability to stop the puck, because by the time my player lightly bumped into the goalie, the puck had already went through his five-hole, and was over two-thirds across the goal line. Even if my player hadn't bumped into him, he wouldn't have had enough time to stop the puck from fully crossing over. By the time he would have either reached behind him, or used one of his legs to try and sweep it away from behind, it would have already been in the net.

I'm not sure what the last part of your post is referencing. Are you just adding that in as a separate point? Because the CPU's team was the offending team, and their goalie was in the net.

Anyway, I suppose I should just chalk it up to a questionable call. I'm still unsure of what the exact rule is concerning a situation like mine, where a player Is tripped on a breakaway, a delayed penalty is signaled, and the puck slides past the goalie, crossing the line. Plus, if the player bumps into the goalie as a result of the trip, but doesn't interfere with his ability to stop the puck, (and hell, even if he did interfere with his ability to stop it) you would assume the goal would count because it was the fault of the offending player for tripping the guy on the breakaway and causing him to bump into the goalie. I wasn't able to find a specific rule about this, but I only did a quick online search, so I'm going to try a more thorough search after, just to quell my curiosity.

I also recorded footage of the incident on my PS4, so I might upload it to YouTube and see what kind of opinion others have on the subject, since they'll be able to actually see what happened, and not just read a description of it.

Once again, thank you for the reply! :D

[mikeyflex]

You ain't going to believe this, it happen to me last night. Had a clean breakaway, defender came back tripped me up, while on my knees sliding to the goal the goalie made the save coming out, however his defender touched the puck on the rebound and went into his net, and guess what, my guy bumped into the goalie from the tripping penalty and the ref waved it off.

I believe these are considered judgement calls by the refs. Having said that I do believe all bets are off if the defending team puts the puck into their own net, which was the case with me. 

BTW: I was just stating the scenario to score a goal for the offending team on the delayed penalty.

Just another thought, in real hockey defenders hit guys into their own goalie all the time and still get called for interference.