Hurricanes' Brind'Amour flummoxed by missed high-stick on Gostisbehere
Carolina Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind'Amour was frustrated by a missed high-sticking call late in Monday's 1-0 loss to the Florida Panthers in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Final.
Panthers forward Sam Reinhart clipped Hurricanes defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere in the face with his stick with just over two minutes remaining in regulation and Carolina's net empty. There was no penalty on the play.
Gostisbehere got caught in the shield by Reinhart's stick, tried to sell it a little bit#TimeToHunt | #LetsGoCanes pic.twitter.com/c0kOsEEr2r
- Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights (@HockeyDaily365) May 23, 2023
Brind'Amour said he was particularly perplexed because the referee blew his whistle but offered no subsequent explanation as to why the play was blown dead.
"The stick to the face, I thought he called," Brind'Amour said postgame. "He stopped the play. Whatever, that's not the difference. We've gotta get more than one, anyway. But that adds to the frustration in the game. No doubt about it, right?
"Especially when they stop the play. I don't understand that. You stop it because you saw a high stick. Why are you stopping the play then? I don't know. No explanation, just move on."
Brind'Amour wasn't pleased with the officiating as a whole.
"I could go on all day on that," he said. "We get three knick-knack penalties on sticks to the hand, one guy drops his stick on it. I was told early in the series that that's not necessarily a penalty. If it hits his hands - but that just taps his stick, and (he) lets it go. It's not really a penalty. It wasn't called against us in the first or second round."
The Panthers received four power plays in the game, scoring the contest's lone goal on the man advantage in the second period. The Hurricanes received only one power play despite outshooting Florida 32-17 and controlling 77.83% of the expected goals at five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Carolina has had no answer for the Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, who's stopped 132 of the 135 shots he's faced in the series.
Florida leads the series 3-0.
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