Johnny on the spot as debate swirls around shootout tally

Flames star who displayed unique creativity says he was moving forward throughout deke

Was it a classic or was it cheating?

That was the debate around hockey circles following Johnny Gaudreau’s brilliant goal in Tuesday’s shootout against the Minnesota Wild.

While the point was rendered moot by the fact the Wild eventually won the skills contest, the question remains — should it have counted?

Damn right, it should have. The league agreed.

Many don’t.

As the Calgary Flames first shooter, Gaudreau wound his way in on Wild goalie Alex Stalock, stickhandling several times before deking left, turning sideways and out-waiting the sprawling netminder before his soft mitts casually flipped it over the fallen heap, dropping into an empty net.

Gaudreau said it was the nicest shootout goal he’s ever scored.

Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau said it was illegal because Gaudreau was skating backwards while waiting for Stalock to topple.

Fact is, replays show that while Gaudreau did pivot to skate backwards for a split-second, he managed to keep the puck moving in a forward motion, which is really the only thing that matters in the ruling.

“I could see why people might think it’s not a goal ... a little bit,” said Gaudreau, who was skating parallel to the goal-line as he moved backwards.

“Personally, I was moving forward the whole time. My skates didn’t really go backwards, they went sideways a little bit. I’m sure people have their different opinions, but they called it a goal, so lucky for me.”

A Sportsnet poll found 53 per cent of respondents agreeing with Gaudreau and the league.

Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan can also understand both sides of the argument but said he was confident the goal would stand.

“Just knowing the league — they’re not going to reverse goals unless it’s clear,” said Gulutzan, whose club eventually fell 2-1 when the Wild’s fifth shooter, Mikael Granlund, beat goalie Mike Smith with no response from the Flames.

“If it’s debatable, the league’s not into taking away goals.

“You can look at a lot of shootout goals with some of the different moves guys make, they drag and pull themselves sideways

— they’re just creative these days. I think with these types of goals if you see it excessively they’ll call it, but if it’s arguable they’re not going to take that creativity away. Hey, the guys loved the goal. People liked the goal.”

People liked the spin-o-rama too, but the league banished that in 2014, in part, because it often wasn’t clear it adhered to the penalty shot rule, which states, “the puck must be kept in motion towards the opponent’s goal-line ... ”

In this case, while Gaudreau was clearly moving away from the net to buy time, the puck continued to move ever so slightly toward the goal-line.

“I don’t think he went backwards at all,” said Flames captain Mark Giordano.

“(The Wild) thought he went backwards, but I think the puck kept spinning. Man, to have that sort of touch from there reminded me of one (Pavel) Datsyuk scored a while ago. That’s some pretty good touch. I think we’ll be watching that one for a while.”

One for the ages, indeed, even if it wasn’t planned at all.

“Yeah, probably my nicest one, for sure,” beamed the NHL’s fourth-leading scorer, who has only converted on a shockingly low 3-of-14 shootout attempts.

“I wasn’t thinking I was going to be doing that move. I was kind of running out of real estate there, and the goalie came out at me a little farther than I thought he would. If he’s out that far he’s kind of falling, and he’s a small goaltender, so I had space to chip it over him, and it dropped right in there.”

And landed him smack dab in the middle of the type of dispute hockey fans enjoy.