In key spots, penalties playing role

EDMONTON, Alberta — Zach Whitecloudcoveredhis face with his gloved right hand in anguish inside the penalty box. By the time he collected himself and walked out, the Stars were celebrating an overtime victory to send them to the Stanley Cup Final.

Whitecloud had flipped the puck over the glass for an automatic delay of game penalty, the Stars scored on the power play and the top-seeded Golden Knights lost the game and theWestern Conference final.

“Just for that type of penalty to decide a game, it doesn’t make sense to me,” Knights coach Peter DeBoer said.

It’s affecting a lot of games in the puck over the glass playoffs. Gone are the days that you have to mug somebody to get a penalty late in regulation or in overtime of a playoff game because referees swallowtheir whistles not to have too big an influence. Part of the reason for that is some of the penalties are automatic or blatant and can’t be ignored just because it’s the Cup.

“With those, it’s not subjective,” Lightning forward Alex Killorn said. “Those are penalties regardless. It’s not a judgment call by any means.”

It’s not just this year, either. There were six puck over the glass penalties in the seven-game 2019 final between the Blues and Bruins.

Then again, after that call made up 3% of all trips to the box in the regular season, there have been 31 puck over the glass penalties through 125 games this postseason and roughly 20% of them have come in OT, according to the officialstrackingwebsite Scouting the Refs.

The Stars clinched their spot in the final because it did that onDenis Gurianov’sovertime goal. Yet it’s also by far the most penalized team in the playoffs, so the penalty kill is prepared for the next time a Stars player puts a puck over the glass.

“Our PK has has had to do a job every game,” Dickinson said. “We take a lot of penalties in the playoffs. We’re not afraid of the challenge.”