Kapanen confused over call in final

Finland appeared to beat U.S. for women’s gold, but goal was called back

A Finnish forward for the Toronto Maple Leafs thinks his country should have won the world women’s hockey championship.

Kasperi Kapanen doesn’t understand why a Finland goal in overtime of the final against the United States was waived off after a lengthy review on Sunday. The teams played out the rest of overtime without a goal before the Americans won in a shootout in Espoo, Finland.

“It was a little crazy. I think it should have been a goal … the goalie’s out of her net and they’re going to call a penalty anyway,” Kapanen said.

“I think they kind of messed it up … that’s what happens. It is what it is.”

Playing in their first final, the Finns celebrated what they thought was a golden goal by Petra Nieminen at 11:33 of the 20-minute overtime. But after video review, the goal was called back.

Finland captain Jenni Hiirikoski had made contact with American goaltender Alex Rigsby, who was moving out of her crease, as she passed in front of the net. Nieminen had a near-empty net at which to shoot.

Hiirikoski wasn’t assessed a goaltender interference penalty, but Rigsby was given a tripping minor.

The International Ice Hockey Federation released a statement on Monday, saying the goal was disallowed due to nonincidental goaltender interference.

The IIHF, which had a video goal judge review every goal during the tourney, cited two rules.

One states: “An attacking skater who makes contact other than incidental with a goaltender who is out of his goal crease during game action will be assessed a minor penalty for interference. If a goal is scored at this time, it will not count.”

The other states: “Incidental contact is allowed when the goaltender is in the act of playing the puck outside his goal crease, provided the attacking skater makes a reasonable effort to minimize or avoid such contact.”

Taking those two rules into account, the IIHF said the video goal judge determined the goal should be disallowed.

While the refs had called tripping on Rigsby during the play, penalties are not reviewable by the video goal judge. Once the goal was waived off, the referees decided to uphold the original penalty.

Kapanen was watching overtime on Sunday.

“It happened and I thought they’d won,” he said before the Leafs faced the visiting Boston Bruins in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal on Monday night. “I was really happy for them.”

Canada and the U.S. have won every Olympic and world championship gold in women’s hockey, so a Finnish win would have been new territory for the sport.

“It would have been nice for them to win,” Kapanen said.

Kapanen wasn’t the only one confused by the call. Former American women’s team captain Julie Chu tweeted, “What is going onnnnn? If it’s not a goal, then Finland should have a penalty for goalie interference. If it’s a goal, then it means USA tripped Finland and the Finnish goal is good…? If it’s no goal, then how does USA have penalty? Someone help me?? honest question.” Former Canadian captain Hayley Wickenheiser tweeted, “That. Was. A. Goal. #suomi.”