Epinal scores in OT!!! But lose the game

On Saturday night, we played against one of our rival teams, Strasbourg. With a depleted line up, missing our top 2 centers and best left winger, we managed to play an amazing game. This forced us to have one dman play wing, and our 4th line guys filling in on the 2nd line and power play. With the score tied 1-1 in the 3rd we were given a power play. All night I had a guy covering me and was not getting any passes for one timers, until there was a breakdown and Plch fed me up high, I blasted it to the net and the rebound came right to Simko and put us up 2-1. Not long after, Strasbourg scored on a quick shot right off the face off to tie it and send the game into Overtime.

In the 10minute overtime we traded scoring chances and with about 5 minutes to play in the OT, my defense partner Peter Slovak got the puck off the face off in the offensive zone. Prior to the 3rd, our coach, Shawn Allard said to us that their goalie was rushing out of the net to cut off the angle and we should fake it and go around him. I couldn't help but think that he was taking that from Don Cherry's Rock Em Sock Em 4. Anyways, Slovak got the puck at the point, he faked the shot and moved pass the sliding forward trying to block the shot, then he faked the shot again and the goalie came rushing out. I saw visions now of like Darryl Sittler breaking down the wing in Overtime, faking the shot on Vladamir Dzurilla and sliding it into the empty net in the 1976 Canada Cup. Slovak put the puck into the empty net and the game was over, we won in OT! All thanks to Don Cherry.

In the midst of our celebrations, we are getting word that the goal has been disallowed. Apparently the ref was calling a penalty on Strasbourg for holding our guy in the crease, but they never touched the puck and the whistle was never blown. It wasn't until the puck went in that he blew the whistle and waved off the goal. But still gave us a power play??? So confused....

Here is Tarik Chipaux, celebrating after the OT winner. You can see the ref just blowing the whistle now, with the Strasbourg players upset but not complaining about losing the game. On a side note, Chipaux tossed his stick and gloves off in celebration and later had to skate past the Strasbourg bench to get them after the goal was disallowed. Kind of embarassing.


Long story short, we did not score on the power play, Strasbourg scored with 2 minutes left and we lost the game. The fans went crazy and started littering the ice with beer cans. My mom was at the game sitting high in the stands and said that the man next to her even tried to spit on the ref as he skated off. Some poor Epinal fan was accidentally hit as the ref was about 50ft away. Our coach could not keep his composure and ran back onto the ice and challenged the ref at center ice. He would have killed him, he was so angry!

We all feel pretty cheated by the whole thing and very confused. The only thing we can do is just get back to work and put this bizarre game behind us.

C'est La Vie